Chi and Chakra
by Thrythlind
Summary: Chi and Chakra are present in every person, but no one has ever successfully learned to use both./ This is basically a variation of "Fighters of a New Day", see author's notes.
1. Arriving

The wilds of Ouzo Island were normally fairly quiet with only the rare soul passing from village to village to see the beautiful forests and the appreciate the sheer glory of the cliff-faces overlooking the ocean below.

That was not the case right now.

"Mouko Takabisha!"

The sound of battle raged through the peaceful landscape.

"Kishin Raishu Dan!"

Trees were falling and landscape was being remodeled as seven masters fought a furiously.

"Happodaikarin burst!"

Figures came into view briefly, as they dashed about, maneuvering to get a shot on each other.

Maneuvering to shape the chi of the battlefield in their favor.

A black-haired young man rushing into the air, and trading blows with an older man in a white gi. Below them, another young man wearing camouflage pants dashed forward under the two, a young woman with short blue-black hair behind him as they dashed for a tiny man in a burglar's black night-suit.

"We're running out of time!" the girl shouted.

"It's coming," the young-man in the camouflage plants called out. "Ranma's almost in place."

Above them, the younger of the two aerial fighters got the better of the deal and tossed the bald older one downward as he used the man's momentum to carry him into the air.

Two more young-woman were circling around behind the battle, carrying what looked like a rug-beater and a ribbon.

"You little brats can't begin to beat me," the withered old man declared as he ricocheted off a tree trunk and back into the air.

"Now, Ryuu!" Ranma shouted as he started the reach the peak of his ascension.

"Saidaikyu Kijin Raishu Dan!" Ryuu shouted as a host of vacuum blades ripped out ahead of him tearing up the land and winging their way toward the withered old gnome who laughed with an almost lunatic fervor as he casually dodged each projectile.

Behind Ryuu, the blue-black haired woman, Akane, had already started her part in the plan.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" she shouted, tightening all her chi pathways in a particular pattern that forced the chi flowing in against itself and filling her muscles and bones with chi that wanted desperately to move.

And it carried her with it, in a burst of speed so extreme that she was almost casually dashing around and past many of Ryuu's vacuum blades as she charged in towards Happosai.

She could see Kurumi beyond Happosai twirling her ribbon and filling the region with heat even as Natsume slowly, to Akane's chi-sped senses, set off the Ryuka Ringu in a path that neatly cut off Happosai's escape into the upper sky, forcing him back down to earth and enduring the continued barrage of Ryuu's vacuum blades and taking him right into Akane's reach.

Akane'd needed the full-body chestnut to get in among Ryuu's Kijin Raishu Dans, but that meant she only had two or three seconds left to get her part of the plan finished and release the full-body chestnut before she'd tired herself out too much to reach the next stage of the battle.

Happosai blinked in surprise as he finally caught sight of the insanely fast Akane. He moved to dodge aside of her, but was far too slow in her current state. She caught his hand and twisted him about to slam hard into the ground, bouncing him up into the swirling mass of air stirred up by the Ryuka Ringu and Kishin Raishu's.

Happosai briefly out of control of his own momentum, Akane let the paths of chi open up and the breath of the world about her flowed through in a rush that had her catching her breath. She rolled away from the danger area as she caught sight of Ryuu moving to intercept Genma and Ranma descending.

"Hiryu Korin Dan!" Ranma shouted as he slammed down into Happosai's location.

Kurumi and Natsume were moving forward even as Happosai, a bit less confident, was making a haggard leap away from the impact of Ranma's attack and Ranma himself was catching his breath.

Kurumi's ribbon slashed out for Genma, catching the fat man as he was about to take advantage of a momentary opening in Ryuu's guard. Pulling backward, she set up the balding man for hard impact by Natsume's ice-charged rug-beater.

The sisters nodded to each other as they went past Genma into the confrontation with Happosai. The old man was almost one with the chi currents of the battlefield, and it was wearing his body down. Meanwhile, each of the five of the other masters were going full bore only for brief periods at a time.

All of them could stand toe to toe with Happosai individually. Ranma could probably have killed him if he wanted. If simply killing Happosai were enough, then it would have been a simple matter.

But this wasn't a simple matter of defeat.

Every master could see the threads of knitted chi that Happosai had tied to him and watch as they twisted outward into the distance.

"I should never have acknowledged you as a grandmaster, Ranma," Happosai retorted. "If you take such a rabble into your teaching. Girls and vagabonds."

"Dry up old, man," Ranma shouted. "We're not your school anymore."

"This new school is all of ours," Kurumi declared.

"All of ours," Natsume agreed. "Our techniques, shared between the three of us."

"No more training accidents," Akane said.

"Your time is over, old man," Ryuu agreed.

"Feh," Happosai shouted as Genma came to his side, standing their grimly. "If all you want is to establish your own school, then do so and leave us out of it."

They moved back to exchanging blows, the five younger masters pacing themselves more evenly as they forced Genma and Happosai into channeling more and more chi from around the environment.

In the far distance, they could hear the scattered sounds of battle throughout the small forest and Cliffside. Happosai had gathered three-hundred years worth of students for this confrontation. He'd probably been hoping the fact that they barely had any students yet would have been enough to deal with the situation. He hadn't counted on them bringing allies.

But then, he hadn't counted on just how much he'd pissed people off over the last three-hundred years.

Amazons, Musk, Phoenix, the Kunos and the Hibikis were confronting his students all across the area. Some students had refused to side with him, of course, but he'd found a use for them anyway.

Hostages.

He'd long ago built backdoors into the chi pathways of his students, openings for a bit of chi sorcery to make sure that he was always on top.

When Ranma and the others started to call him to task for his behavior, he'd tried to get into Ranma's pathways and found them closed to him.

The Soul of Ice, if Genma had ever passed on the flaws he'd carefully worked into the training, then the Amazon meddling had neatly given Ranma the tools to fix them himself.

Natsume and Kurumi were the same.

But they hadn't been aware of what the import of those flaws were, and he still had some he could manipulate.

Genma was among those, though he never had the need. After all, Genma's standing was just as much in threat as Happosai's in this. Poor Hinako, though, what a surprise she'd had when she started falling apart at the beginning of this campaign.

Still, when his rebellious students started falling apart, he'd have expected Ranma and the others to get the message and back off. After all what did they hope to accomplish by this fight?

"A martial artist protects the weak, Happosai," Ranma said as he deflected a happo daikarin which Akane neatly returned at the old man with a volleyball spike. "And you exploit the weak."

"We give them the chance to be strong, boy," Genma protested as he launched a kick at Ranma while simultaneously dodging around Kurumi's ribbon . "Who are you younglings to tell us to stop teaching our students and art."

A signal rippled through the three younger masters as the two young men charged forward to engage Happosai. Ranma falling easily within a four-limbed stance as ki extended from his fingers like claws and tore up the land around him.

"Finally turning up the heat, eh, Ranma?" Happosai asked chuckling. "You know if I die, those others die."

Even as he talked, the three girls turned aside, and slammed into Genma hard. Pulling further on the chi flow than before, enough to slowly overpower the old panda, but not enough to wear out their bodies too much. As their fight continued, Akane trailed quietly further and further behind in the pace of the fight.

Genma noted and snorted briefly as he noted that Akane hadn't dived as fully into the flows of yin and yang as the others. Obviously she wasn't as far along in her masterhood as the others yet.

The fight continued as at least four of the masters pulled out the highest techniques they'd shared between each other to chisel away at the strength of their enemies. They were holding back only enough to avoid slamming through through their opponents and accidentally killing them.

Neither of the elder masters were paying much attention to their path as the next generation traced a series of intricate paths, curling the chi around with them and temporarily reshaping the local dragon lines.

One didn't get to be a master of any sort of Anything Goes without learning at least a little something of chi sorcery, and given their opponent, all five had recently spent much time developing their skills in that area.

As the two fights started moving close toward each other, Akane came closer to the center of it all.

She found the last step in the pattern and stepped within the carefully shaped flow of chi. For an instant, both Happosai and Genma had their backs to her, and in that instant she lashed out with either hand into the vertebrate just under the necks of each man.

Both were wearied by the fight.

Far too tired to resist the intrusion of Akane's chi flow into theirs just long enough to pull a thread out.

Still, Akane was the only one of the five that could have succeeded at this. After all, she was the only one they underestimated.

A twist of the mind and hand later and she pulled both hands back, strands of knitted chi firm within her grasp.

Happosai and Genma froze as each of their opponents stepped away, grim expressions on their faces.

"But," Happosai protested. "How?"

"Do you think we're going to tell you, baka?" Akane declared. "Now you know what happens if I start twisting, don't you."

She flexed her fingers letting a twist of chi work through her enemy's pathways. Genma fell to his knees as he coughed up blood, but Happosai stood firm, a trace of blood leaking from his mouth.

"So here's the deal," Ranma said. "You drop the curse on Hinata, Soun, Tarou an' the rest."

"And you stop teaching," Ryuu added.

"If you agree to that," Natsume said. "Then maybe we can convince Akane to let go of your curse."

"Please forgive me!" Genma said instantly dropping into the Crouch of the Wild Tiger. "I'll do whatever you say!"

Happosai looked towards one of his more promising students and frowned in annoyance. He wasn't disappointed, however, had expected the wimp to give in like that.

"All right," Happosai said. "That's fine, go ahead and drop it and I'll do what you say."

"No good, old freak," Ranma said.

"You let them go now," Akane said grimly. "Or I'll do something permanent next time."

"What about me?" Genma whined.

"Quiet, panda," Ryuu snapped, smacking Genma in the back of the head.

"Let go of the curses, old man," Natsume said. "All of them, the ones in your hands and the ones in your back pockets."

"If I die, then so do they," Happosai said and he started to raise one of hands to twist it as Akane had.

Akane was faster and the old man's wrists spasmed, preventing him from controlling the knots of chi to harm his hostages. In punishment, Akane carried through on her threat and Happosai's left knee suddenly shattered with a second twist of her hand.

"There's a lot she can do without killing you," Kurumi promised. "But since you made this curse, you know that."

"And I haven't touched your favorite piece of anatomy yet," Akane noted.

Happosai looked up from his position towards the five younger masters and toward his already surrendered student. Further out, he could feel his other students falling one by one.

No reinforcements were coming.

He only had one choice.

****

Ranma, Akane, Kurumi, Natsume and Ryuu stood next to each other as they watched Genma leave and Happosai limp off.

"The curses are gone, but how do we know they won't teach anybody," Kurumi asked hesitantly.

"We don't," Ryuu said.

"But if they do," Akane said. "They don't have anymore hostages."

"And all bets are off," Natsume agreed.

"We ain't them," Ranma noted. "We can't take 'em out for what they ain't done yet after we made a deal."

"Let's clean up," Ryuu said, as he looked toward the forest and the dwindling sounds of fighting. "Tell them Happosai's beaten."

****

Genma finally limped home, relieved that he'd gotten out of that alive. He'd never have believed it if he hadn't seen it. Those five managing to outwit the Master and force them into this parole.

What he found as he came home was a very pleased looking wife.

"Husband," she said. "We no longer need worry about our daughter-in-law's barren womb."

Genma blinked as he listened to what his wife was saying. She was still worried about grandchildren after all this time?

"Careful what you say," Genma said, looking around. "That daughter-in-law nearly killed me a couple of days ago. They could be listening right now."

"Nonsense," Nodoka said. "I'm sure she's much too busy attending to Ranma as a proper wife to be spying on us."

"If you say so, dear," Genma agreed, sighing. "Maybe we should move somewhere."

"Excellent idea, Husband," Nodoka crowed. "After all, then we could leave my darling son Ranma to his life and raise our next children without having to burden him with the fact that we had to have more heirs because his wife is infertile."

"Next…children?" Genma stuttered.

"And I'm certainly you've found all new ways to train our children this time around," Nodoka said as she started to go around packing things.

Genma sweated as he started to weigh his son's and the other young Musabetsu masters' future wrath versus his wife's insistence. He had a guess as to which would win out, and he wanted to be well hidden from his son's eyes by the time that decision was made.

"All right," Genma said, nervously. "Let's get packing."

Maybe they'd move to the Lightning Country, that might be far enough away.

****

"Left?" Akane said, frowning. "You don't think he's planning something, do you?"

"Nah, this sounded like Mom's idea," Ranma said, obviously upset. "Maybe she doesn't think it's manly to tell your old man what's what."

Akane crossed her arms and her eyebrow twitched as she moved next to her husband. She was surprised that he'd admitted that to her actually, even now. In the old days, he'd never let her know that much about how he's feeling.

"If that's the case," Akane said. "She's not who I think she is."

Akane had no idea that Nodoka was less of the woman she thought than the young wife realized, but for entirely different reasons.

"I'm sure she just feels like giving us space," Akane said. "Maybe she thinks that's why we haven't had children yet. All her hovering?"

"Eh, I guess that's possible," Ranma said shrugging. "There's wars between the Ninjas right now, there's been a bijuu seen on the mainland. It ain't the best time to be moving anywhere."

"I'm sure Genma will avoid the fighting," Akane assured him. "Meanwhile, I think it's time to start agreeing with Nodoka's goal. As of tonight, I'm off contraceptives."

She winked at Ranma who flushed brightly in response.

****

Genma stared down at the valley below him in horror.

Jusenkyo.

How had he gotten so far off track as to wander into this part of the world of all places? Had he traded brains with the Hibiki boy somehow?

"What's with all the sticks in the water?" the younger of the two girls behind him demanded.

She was a wild and impudent looking six-year old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Imouto-chan!" the elder of the two said, eyebrows pushing down at the outside corners and up in the middle, showing her embarrassment and nervousness. "Th..th..that is rude."

The elder wasn't all that much taller than the younger, with black hair and a pair of glasses perched on her nose and held to ears with string similar to her father.

"What? Ryoko," the younger said. "You're wondering too."

"It is obviously a training ground, Joseibi," Ryoko explained. "One needs to be able to move from pole to pole without losing your balance. The pools are obviously to prevent injury."

"Whatever," Joseibi said. "There's a house down there, maybe they have something to eat that wasn't alive an hour ago."

"No, we're going to leave," Genma said. "This isn't where we want to be."

If the Jusenkyo guide saw him with the two girls, word would get to one of the three tribes in the area. They didn't particularly have a good opinion of him. If they didn't try to kill him themselves, they'd pass word on to Ranma that he was seen with two young girls near the cursed training ground.

"Go where you want," Joseibi said as she already started down toward the house at a run. "I'm going down."

"Imouto-chan!" Ryoko called out moving to follow her sister before turning back to her father. "Sumimasen, I shall bring her back quickly."

"Yeah," Genma said, refusing to step down into that valley and be seen. "I'll be getting dinner and camp set up, back that way, where we camped last night."

"Hai! Father," Ryoko said before heading back to catch up to her younger sister, calling out like a nervous nag.

Genma shook his head at the display.

He could barely believe that the persistently frightened girl was his daughter. It was embarrassing, and that supposed control technique hadn't worked out for her at all. She was just as skittish as ever, perhaps more so.

What's worse, it seemed to have made her chi channeling clumsy. At the moment, her capacity and endurance for drawing on the ambient chi more than made up for her inefficiency and clumsiness at using it. She seemed to have an edge on Ranma at the same age in capacity and endurance.

Besides, given Nodoka's insistence on Ryoko learning how to use a blade and study some subjects, the girls' overall skills were somewhat behind Ranma's at the same age. She was slower to learn, probably because of how many different things she was being expected to learn.

History, etiquette, tea ceremony, flower arranging.

It was miracle that the girl's natural genius could still shine through all that nonsense.

Of course, Joseibi hadn't developed any talent for drawing on environmental chi, but then he didn't spend much time with her. His blonde daughter didn't seem interested in fighting at all, even flat out refused some training. Genma would have been more insistent about it, but every time he was about to respond to one of Joseibi's refusals, Ryoko decided to ask questions about something.

In any case, he needed to be gone before something happened to attract attention to him.

Meanwhile, Ryoko had an easy time keeping up with Joseibi. The younger girl didn't take training nearly as seriously as Ryoko did. The problem wasn't catching up to the girl, it was getting her to come back. Granted, some part of Ryoko knew she could just pick up the younger sister and go back, but the black-haired girl wouldn't do that to her sister.

"Father said we don'….do not…do not," the girl urgently corrected her use of the contraction, "want to be here."

"He probably conned someone down there," Joseibi responded. "And quit botherin' with the stick. Mom isn't here to keep our speech 'proper' and crap."

"Imouto-chan," Ryoko said. "Watch your language!"

"Hai, hai," Joseibi said, yawning as she still walked forward. "Look, I'm tired and I'm dirty, and those pools can't be all that deep, so what's the harm of a little bath."

Ryoko thought about it briefly, biting her lip. Joseibi smirked as she ducked her head. It was usually easy to convince her elder sister on the small things. At least, it was whenever Mom wasn't around to play with her sword.

"It will have to be very quick," Ryoko said. "And I shall see about directions from the people at the house."

Things went predictably downhill from there.

****

Genma watched as his eldest daughter fretted over the little blonde fox that was his youngest. Ryoko obviously blamed herself for the accident, her eyes even seemed to be flickering orange as she continued to make sure that Joseibi was fine and healthy, even while her eyes flickered to the kettle on the fire and the small pile of clothing she'd set aside for her sister when the curse was reversed.

The fox meanwhile was glaring at their father.

He didn't know why the girl blamed him. It was her disobedience that got her in the trouble.

Still, it would make travelling with her easier. Next time she got out of line, he'd just splash her with water. Good thing it was Joseibi that was cursed and not Ryoko, he could survive Nodoka finding that out.

Now, Jusenkyo placed them between the Wind and Earth countries. They had a good two months or so before Nodoka expected them back from this little trip. It would be best to travel straight through Fire Country at this rate.

That would bring them close to Konoha.

Genma smiled at that.

Rumor had it that Konoha was still in recovery from that attack a few years back, it would probably be quite ready for a visit by a martial artist and chi master. The only problem would be trying to find the techniques that didn't depend on chakra.

He'd seen what happened when you mixed chakra and chi. It didn't usually work out well.

Fortunately, most of the ninja taijutsu arts and a few ninjutsu types were usable with chi given some easy conversions.

That was going to be dicey, however. He'd need Ryoko to decipher a ninja's training scroll. It was odd that Ranma's analytical ability had extended outside of combat to things like ciphers in Ryoko's case. The only thing that was really all that different was the extent of scholarly education that Ryoko had at Nodoka's insistence.

But silly things like reading more books couldn't have been the reason for such a useful ability.

****

Kakashi Hatake sauntered slowly up toward the Memorial as the sun peeked up over the trees. This was his usual routine while he was in town, especially as he wasn't burdened with a genin team to babysit. The Hokage kept threatening him with one, but so far he'd managed to avoid falling into that particular trap.

A few people knew about this habit, but most simply assumed that he slept in late and such things. Still, he wasn't the only one that had a habit of making private trips up to the memorial.

"Imouto-chan," a girl's voice carried down to him through the trees. "Father said that we ought to stay here."

There was a yipping sound that Kakashi recognized as an immature fox, probably a pet. Odd to call a pet "little sister", but who was he to comment.

"B…b…but I do not have any water to boil," the girl continued.

Kakashi was considering on whether or not he should turn the last corner or not, but something was prickling him. Something about the way the girl had said about her father's instructions.

The Copycat Ninja turned the last corner and found a girl maybe just shy of ten years old with long black hair and a pair of glasses on her nose. She carried a blonde fox in a cradle formed by her arms and was already looking toward him when he'd first seen her. The girl had some impressive senses.

"Hello there," he said in a calm, friendly manner. "What are you doing up here?"

The girl twisted her body slightly, shielding the fox in her arms and biting her lip. Kakashi was momentarily taken aback to see an orange fire build up in her blue eyes. She didn't look like any of the academy students, but she was certainly trained. He noted a bokken placed respectfully to the side near the memorial

Briefly, he slipped his headband up and opened his sharingan eye. What he saw surprised him.

The girl had chakra coils all right, and they were strong for her age, but they were flaring weakly out of control. Chakra was being built up and not used and there was something wrong with it that he couldn't lay a finger on.

That wasn't the main thing, all that told him was that the girl hadn't been properly trained in how to develop her chakra coils beyond what an untrained person had. What surprised him more was what else he saw.

While the girl's chakra coils were strong, her chi pathways, usually unseen under the more obvious chakra coils, practically glowed and, unlike most people, showed a conscious level of control with pathways tightening and widening in clear patterns to control the flow of energy from the world around, through her body and back out. He hadn't seen enough chi-users to know whether the girl was skilled or clumsy, but she was obviously trained.

No wonder she'd realized he was there, she was a chi adept, drawing power from everything around her. And that meant she had a chi-user's sixth sense, picking up traces of others and their intents as the chi flowed through each person, back into the world at large and then into the chi adept.

There were very few people that trained in chi manipulation. Most only acquired strong chi as a side effect of having strong chakra. The limits and strengths of its use weren't widely understood. You had to search far and wide for someone that understood it well.

Though he was surprised someone had tried to give train this girl with chakra and chi.

The fox was strange as well. Her chakra seemed…almost human, actually, though mostly untrained, in both chi and chakra.

"Ano…" she said. "M…my father asked me to stay up here with my sister."

"And where is your sister?" Kakashi asked, looking toward the odd little fox.

The little girl looked reluctantly toward her fox and bit her lip.

"A fox can't be your sister, can it?" Kakashi asked, moving a bit closer.

"Ano…" the girl responded looking back up.

"So why did your father ask you to stay up here?" Kakashi asked.

"H…he said he had to get some things in town," the girl stuttered.

"Oh, I see," Kakashi said.

"Are you a ninja?" the little girl asked. "Father s…said this was a ninja village."

"Well, I might be," Kakashi said. "Why do you ask?"

"I am a m…martial artist," she answered.

That orange fire was starting to recede, and with it the uncontrolled build up and concentration of chakra. Her chakra was started settle back to a natural state.

Kakashi nodded at the confirmation of the suspicion he'd had upon realizing the girl was a chi adept.

"Did you father go through the gate?" Kakashi asked.

"Ano…" the black-haired girl said. "A…are you n..not supposed to go over the wall? I..is that not how to find who is worthy to come in?"

"If there were no gate how would all the non-ninjas get in to hire us," Kakashi asked.

"I…I suppose they couldn't…" the little closed her eyes tight and started quickly restating herself. "Could not, could not…Could. Not."

"Don't stress yourself," Kakashi said, reaching out to ruffle the girl's head and being surprised when she rolled her head easily out of the way. "So, why don't we go get you that water for your fox."

"B…but, Father said…" the girl protested.

"If your father has a problem with it, you can blame me," Kakashi said. "But you said you needed water, and you're not going to find any here. If we're quick we can be right back up here."

The girl bit her lip, but listened to the yipping of the fox in her hand. To Kakashi's eyes, the fox almost seemed to be telling the girl to ignore him. Fortunately for him, the black haired girl seemed to misread the warning yips.

"We need to be quick then," the girl said hesitantly, then she bit her lip and flinched a little. "OH! Sumimasen…I…I forgot to introduce myself…I am Ryoko Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts."

She started to bow, realized that would inconvenience the fox in her arms, paused, bit her lip. Looked around nervously, trying to figure out what to do to properly introduce herself.

"I'll take it that you bowed for now," Kakashi said with a smirk in his eyes. "Let's go get you that water."

"It needs to be hot," Ryoko said quietly.

"Then we'll get you some hot water then," the Copycat Ninja said in a tone that was obviously humoring the little girl. "Maybe you can tell me a little bit about your father as you go?"

****

Genma panted as he looked down into Konoha and listened intently to the sounds of the ninjas searching for him. He hadn't been able to get away with any scrolls. Worse, when he'd gotten back to the memorial, there'd only been more ninja.

Ninja who knew to block their chi with their chakra so that they were hard to feel coming with his sixth sense.

He'd had to resort to the Umisenken's ultimate technique to escape.

That meant he'd lost Ryoko, because there was no way he was going back into Konohagakure to find her.

And that meant that he'd lost Nodoka's future grandchildren, as far as his wife was concerned.

He couldn't go to his son, not and ever be safe.

He couldn't go to Nodoka now.

After Hinako was crippled by Happosai's curse, Soun was probably off-limits.

No, his only choice at this point was to take back to the road.

A long training trip and some real freedom for the first time in a long time.

****

The Hokage looked toward the two little girls sitting in his office, the older of the two was sitting very properly and lecturing the other one about proper posture…somewhat hopelessly, Sarutobi noted with a smile.

The younger of the two kept rolling her eyes, but nevertheless seemed to correct her manner of sitting to at least a marginal degree.

"Their father escaped," Kakashi said. "But he didn't get out with anything. So I guess this means we go find the girls' mother and leave them with her."

"I'd be more comfortable with some other relative if we could find one," Hokage said as he looked toward his office and the sound of the blonde, Joseibi complaining filtered toward them.

"Ryoko, no mother, no sword, no reason to worry," she complained loudly to the obvious disapproval, flavored deeply by worry, of her elder sister.

"What else should we do?" Kakashi asked.

"I'm going to have Ibiki talk to the girls some," Sarutobi said, ignoring the look of surprise Kakashi gave him at mentioning the chief torturer. "Gently. I'd like you to go see about this mother and what sort of person she is. When we have all the facts, then we can make a decision."

Kakashi nodded.

"I'll get on that right away," Kakashi said as he strolled out of the room.

The Hokage, meanwhile turned toward the two girls and, a large smile on his face, he walked back into his office to speak to them.

****

Author's Note: This is a variation of the basic set up of Fighters of a New Day based on the fact that I'm having more fun with the Ranma's sisters subplot than the others.

I haven't decided to abandon Fighters, because I like the other two characters' situations. They're just not as developed as Ryoko and Joseibi.

This set up gives me

A) fewer original characters (Ryoko, Joseibi and any Ranma next gen kids

I decide to intro later)

and

B) A pre-existing plot and storyline to piggyback on.

Both of these are more conducive to getting chapters out quicker and easier, which is something I consider important for this sort of writing.

That said, I now get to put Ryoko in and among the regular Naruto cast.

Note, Ryoko won't be a ninja, Konoha doesn't have a chi-adept training program. Joseibi will still be (partially as a way to keep Ryoko in the village, as before). She will likely end up getting involved, however.

Also note, in this fic, Ryoko and Joseibi don't know about a brother at all, and Ranma doesn't know about sisters.

I'll probably run the discovery of the girls the same way….with Kurumi wandering.

Chi and Chakra:

All people have these to one degree or another.

Chi is reading and manipulating the flow of energy that passes through oneself from the world around.

Chakra is in building up and manipulating the flow of energy that you produce with your spirit and body.

This is why building up both Chakra and Chi is difficult. Chi is much more fluid and stronger chakra and choke it's passage to a degree. Like wise, stronger chi can breakdown chakra with its constant motion.


	2. Settling

Ryoko walked along the streets of Konoha with her younger sister, a small pile of Ryo in her hands with instructions to purchase new clothing and groceries for herself and Joseibi while they stayed in Konoha. They'd already been provided with a small apartment and a promise that the rent would be kept up for them.

The young, black-haired girl bit her lip and looked back toward the Hokage's office. She was confused about the situation.

The people seemed generally concerned and trustworthy about her and her sister, but the questions that nice, scarred man kept asking were uncomfortable for some reason.

****

"Feel free to relax," the tall, scarred man said to the little girl in front of him. "There's no reason to sit in seiza for this entire talk."

"Ano…" the girl said, biting her lip. "I sh…should always behave properly, Mo..morino-sama."

The stuttering and discomfort in people he was conversing with wasn't something new to Ibiki, but he'd rarely had an interview where he wasn't the direct cause of. The girl wasn't quite scared of him, but she was terrified of something.

"There are always times to relax, Ryoko-chan," Ibiki said.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, looking around. "But…we're…we are…we are…" she caught her breath. "We are not here to spar. So I must maintain proper composure at all times."

She found sparring relaxing? How interesting.

"Did your father teach you these manners?" he asked.

"I...iie," Ryoko answered hesitantly, shaking her head. "Mother says Father does not need such polished manners. Mother says it is not manly."

"What about your little sister?" Ibiki asked.

The girl flushed brightly and hung her head down, biting her lip.

"Ano…" she said turning very nervous. "I n…n..know she is my responsibility, but I…I…can not teach her."

Ibiki had watched the girls for an hour or two while the ate and waited to be called on. Ryoko had two ways of correcting her little-sister's behavior. Either she gave loud and clear protests which the blonde largely ignored, or she spoke lowly in quiet tones and Joseibi quickly corrected herself. Without the sort of frantic fear that Ryoko had when she caught herself in a "mistake."

Ryoko was teaching Joseibi just fine, though Ibiki wondered if she herself realized that.

"She seems to be doing fine," Ibiki said. "I've seen kids who are much ruder and insolent than her."

****

Joseibi looked from place to place, carefully. Considering this was a ninja town, some part of her had assumed it would have wall to wall versions of her old man and his ideas of training. She was having to admit that she'd so far only seen two training styles.

The old man's, which quite frankly scared the hell out of her, and Ryoko's, which were cool and all, but didn't seem to help all that much. Sure, she could beat the crap out of most kids her age and a few older bullies, but she wasn't capable of the sort of superhuman things her sister and father could do.

Of course, her sister explained that was because she wasn't attuned to the flow of chi yet, but she hadn't yet explained how to find that attunement. Joseibi figured that's because her sister hadn't found a safe way to teach it yet.

The old man threw Ryoko into situations where she had to learn instantly or else suffer, maybe even die. He rarely seemed to show some of the same benefits Ryoko had from the extreme training, even if he had some similar abilities. Plus Joseibi had never seen himself doing anything like what he did to Ryoko. Joseibi had only once heard him mention his own master, and it was in hushed tones.

That made her think that her old man's master was just as bad or worse than her old man.

Ryoko, meanwhile, took the time to show Joseibi what to do, what not to do, explained things quietly, stuttering all the way, and every once in a while called a sudden spar, or "special training" if one of their parents were watching. Even those spars were nothing like the furious battles Ryoko had with their father, and the special training, while always devious and at times aggravating and painful, was never really dangerous like their father's could sometimes be.

Joseibi had never had a serious injury in training since Ryoko had started teaching her last year, by comparison to Ryoko's medical record for the same period.

Which brought her back to the current situation and what she was watching. In the open ground of what looked to be some kind of school, and kids were practicing hand-to-hand combat and shuriken target practice as she watched. Others were meditating in a corner, or trying to. Most seemed to be sleeping, like she usually did.

The handful of instructors she saw were teaching more like Ryoko did, than their father.

What was most telling was the kid in the corner, crying as an instructor and a nurse looked over a skinned arm carefully. Joseibi could tell from here it wasn't anything serious. Their old man wouldn't have given the injury even much of a first look, forget a second look or a full examination.

It made her think back toward her own discussion with the scarred guy.

****

"You want to know what our parents are like, doncha," Joseibi said behind narrowed eyes.

Ibiki arced an eyebrow at how quickly the six-year old girl figured that out. Her own sister had been uncomfortable with his succession of questions, but stayed more or less naïve to the reasons, at least consciously.

Joseibi seemed to be a lot more socially aware. Then again, both girls were intelligent and in a situation he would more equate to a prisoner of war situation than any sort of family as Konoha considered the term. They had obviously both adapted to survive.

"Yes, I do," Ibiki said, bluntly, smiling at the girl. "We have concerns about your parents."

"Whatever," Joseibi said. "They're jerks. And they ain't like other parents I see lookin' around at other kids. But this is a ninja village and maybe you'd think the way they do things is A-Ok."

"That's what we're trying to find out," Ibiki said.

This girl would be a excellent shinobi.

"And if everything isn't A-Ok?" Joseibi asked.

"You would stay here, at least until you're old enough to make your own decisions," the interrogator told her.

"When's that?" Joseibi asked.

"Sixteen, or someone who's graduated the ninja academy," Ibiki had said.

Joseibi grimaced and opened her mouth to talk about her mother's sword.

****

Joseibi had originally scoffed at the idea, unwilling to put herself into the sort of crazy situations Ryoko was thrown into under the name of "training." However, looking at that academy, she was beginning to have second thoughts about the idea.

Granted, there would probably still be dangerous trainings and situations, but they would be her choice and from the looks of things, there'd be people to keep an eye out for her health.

"Hey, Ryoko," Joseibi said, looking toward the academy.

Ahead of her, Ryoko was at a rack in front of a shop, looking through manga. Joseibi didn't have to look to guess that that it was something like Kenshin, or Samurai Deeper Kyo or the like. For as feminine as she was, Ryoko had a boys taste in manga and especially loved anything with swords.

Joseibi suspected that Ryoko liked them as much for ideas on how to use a sword as for the stories.

"What do you need, imouto-chan?" Ryoko asked, glancing toward her sister.

"….Can we get something to eat?" she asked. "There's a ramen stand over there."

"Hai, hai," Ryoko said. "I am almost finished here."

She'd talk to her sister later, now, as they stepped into Ichiraku Ramen, wasn't the time to broach the subject.

No sense starting a fire their first day in town she noted to herself as her elder sister moved to the counter to purchase her manga.

****

Ibiki stepped out of the academy and moved to stand next to Iruka, a smile blazoned on his face.

"I'm still not sure what the point of changing our schedule like this is," the head of the academy noted quietly. "But it's easy enough to have an extra class outside I guess."

"I think it went fine, Iruka," Ibiki said, smiling as he watched across the street where the two girls where moving to get some food. "Now, excuse me, I think I'll leave before I scar your students for life."

The tall, forbidding man turned back into the building and quickly faded from sight into the shadows.

Iruka quietly shook his head and turned back toward watching the various instructions. As he did, his eyes widened.

"Hold, hold it! Naruto what are you doing?!" he shouted moving forward in a rush.

****

Joseibi leaned back on the bed the Leaf had provided her with and thought things through.

Given what she'd told that scarred guy, she was almost certain that they'd decide not to send her or Ryoko back to their mother. That still left another problem, however.

When Ryoko turned sixteen, and legally adult, she would insist that they go back to their home. Joseibi supposed that she could throw a fit, but there wasn't anything they had that Ryoko would accept as a tie to this place that should keep them here.

Becoming a ninja…that might just do it.

Ryoko wouldn't, being a ninja was martial arts for the sake of completing a task, and that wouldn't be pure enough for her elder sister.

As for Joseibi, she didn't have the same idea of seeking martial skill for its own sake. But if she became a ninja, Ryoko would feel bound to make sure that she was skilled enough to survive. She would stay behind even up to when Joseibi graduated and past.

Even without becoming a ninja, Joseibi was looking at six years away from their parents, but the longer the better in her estimation.

No more snake bites, broken bones, dislocated joints.

Or, at least none that didn't have to happen.

And certainly no more of their mother's sword.

****

Ryoko walked out onto the street down from the apartment and yawned, covering her mouth daintily as she walked. They were almost out of food, and that meant she had to purchase more. Joseibi was already out, probably heading to the arcade that they had found the day before.

Their guardians were still watching closely, it seemed, so she wasn't worried about her sister getting into danger. She did wish, however, that Joseibi would mention these things before going off.

The black-haired girl had almost had a heart attack the first time Joseibi wasn't where she was supposed to be. When it turned out Joseibi had just gone out to a playground they'd seen the day before, she was very relieved.

What followed was a compromise. Joseibi had promised to tell Ryoko where she planned to be when she went off by herself from now on.

Ryoko bit her lip and looked nervously towards where she thought one of the ninja magistrates in the funny animal masks was. She couldn't see him, but it still felt like he was there. The black haired girl really did wonder why the ninja magistrates wore those funny masks. They looked more like they belonged in a traveling kids show than as law enforcers or bodyguards.

Ryoko shrugged, one arm held demurely in front of her as she carried her bokken with the other. She looked around her for a moment and realized that in her distraction she'd past the market.

The girl sighed, looked around and noticed an alleyway that would take her back to the street she needed to be at. Quietly wondering when the Konoha people would decide it was time to send her and Joseibi home, she walked down the alleyway. Halfway down the alleyway, there was a turn to another that lay between the market on one side and the academy on the other.

Ryoko's shopping trip was cut short as she turned that corner and came to the image of a purple-haired girl not much older than her, maybe a year, but probably less, perched on the fence above her, and watching quietly into the academy practice grounds.

"Martial arts training?" Ryoko wondered quietly to herself.

Normally not one for interfering in other people's affairs, or even her own for that matter, Ryoko was still tempted by the idea of watching the ninja practice some of their basic techniques.

She leaped up casually next to the purple-haired girl, eager to see what sort of routines were being carried out on the other side of that fence.

To her surprise there wasn't anything but a boy with blonde spiky hair through kunai knives at targets down a range, with somewhat weak accuracy at that.

At about the same time, the purple haired girl turned to watch her land and called out loudly. The other girl reached out in shock, grabbing a handful of Ryoko's kimono and then a second girl's shrieks rang out before the two fell into a pile on the academy side of the fence.

The blonde boy, one Naruto Uzumaki turned around in surprise and dashed across the target range to see what had happened.

He found some strange girl he'd never seen before entangled with Hinata Hyuuga, that strange girl who always seemed to act funny when he looked at her.

"Hey, are you guys all right?" he asked.

He didn't get a particularly understandable answer.

"Ano…" the black-haired girl was saying in a dizzy tone while Hinata simply turned bright red for some reason and passed out.

"Ahh!" Naruto cried out, confused and alarmed by both responses.

He dashed to the Academy door, calling out loudly.

"Hey, can someone come over here and help? There are people hurt here!"

"What's going on out there?" Iruka's voice called out from inside. "Naruto this better not be some kind of joke."

The head instructor of the school came out to see the dazed and tangled pile of Ryoko and Hinata and immediately set about helping Ryoko stand up.

"I was just practicing my shuriken and then it was raining girls," Naruto said.

"I can see, Naruto," Iruka said, "Go in and get the first aid kit, this doesn't look too serious."

"S…sumimasen," Ryoko muttered as she worked at fixing her kimono. "I..I did not mean to cause any..trouble."

"It'll be fine," Iruka said.

Busy as he was taking care of Hinata, a common post-Naruto encounter situation actually, Iruka couldn't see the flickering orange fire in Ryoko's eyes.

"What's the big deal, trying to spy on my training like that…" Naruto asked as he came back outside.

The black-haired girl's eyes filled with orange fire at that statement.

"Bu…but…" Ryoko protested, unable to get much farther because that was pretty much exactly what she was doing. "I…I…didn't…did not! Did not! Did not think it would be…a pro…blem…"

"Sugoi," Naruto said, blinking. "How do you do the fiery eyes?"

That caught Iruka's attention.

"F…f…fiery?" Ryoko responded nervously, standing up frantically. "N..n…no."

Iruka turned around in time to see the burning eyes and a barely perceptible glow start to rise out of her skin. She stumbled back skittishly and leaned against the wall, where a small hiss of smoke lifted up into the air. She flinched away from the wall as she noticed, leaving a faint black handprint on the wall.

The orange glow got brighter around her, he was starting to see individuals tongues of fiery energy. There was also a tracery of reddening skin that suggested the girl wouldn't be spared from her own ability.

"Sugoi," Naruto said.

Iruka wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but it was easy to see that it would get worse if she stayed in the same state mind, and apparently awareness of it made things further out of control.

"Are you interested in learning how to fight?" he asked in a clear and friendly manner. He was greatly relieved when the girl turned to look at him and the orange flames faded from her skin, and fading from her eyes.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, blinking and biting her lip.

"What's your name?" Iruka asked.

"I am Ryoko S.. of the Saotome s..school of An..nything Goes M..martial Arts," the black haired girl said with a quick bow.

"All right," Iruka said, much relieved as he turned back to making sure Hinata was in a position that wouldn't leave her numb when she eventually woke up. "You've trained in your family style already. Do you have any fighting clothes?"

"N..not here," Ryoko said.

"You'll find some spare training togs in the closet through that door," Iruka said. "Maybe you'd like to have a spar with Naruto here?"

Ryoko turned toward the slightly older boy and blinked as she took him in.

"What?" Naruto asked. "Me fight such a cute little girl? I'd walk all over her."

"Ano…" Ryoko said, eyes widening slightly. "Is that a…challenge?"

"I don't need to challenge you," Naruto said proudly. "This is home ground, you need to challenge me."

Iruka rolled his eyes at Naruto's behavior, after seeing the girl burning just a moment ago.

"Wai." Ryoko called out cheerfully, all trace of a fire gone. A smile widening over her ten-year old face. "That is a challenge!"

She turned toward Iruka and bowed deeply before quickly walking into the Academy for the offered spare training clothes. Iruka watched her go and looked toward the confused Naruto as he squinted and watched the small girl practically dance into the academy.

"She's strange," Naruto said, scratching his head.

Iruka looked at Naruto and sweated, before that last statement, he'd been planning to ask Naruto to go easy on the girl. Now, he was wondering if he should have sent Naruto in for the clothes and spoken to the little girl instead.

Off to the side, leaning against the wall, Hinata started to blink slowly awake. It quickly became obvious to her that she had fainted again and sighed in embarrassment. Then she saw Naruto standing a few feet away and swallowed as she stood up and moved quietly into a corner to avoid attention.

It wasn't much later that a black-haired girl wearing a spare academy training outfit. Hinata quickly recognized her as the girl that had surprised her earlier. Seeing Iruka-sensei watching things eased her mind a bit, but she still felt a little confused as to what had been going on while she was unconscious.

Quietly, she ran through the hand seals and activated her byakugan. As her vision came clear, what she saw seemed to make no sense.

From what she could tell, the other girl wasn't mainly drawing on her chakra coils, but pulling energy from the air and earth around her to fill and suffuse her muscles and nerves. The energy turned sluggish wherever it mixed with her chakra coils, like rapids hitting a sudden, deep lake, but it didn't slow its passage at all.

"Are you going to get in stance at all?" Naruto asked as he looked across at his opponent.

Ryoko was standing in a formal and proper stance for a young lady, legs together, one hand holding her bokken to the side like an umbrella that wasn't in use and the other bent demurely in front of her chest. An expectant smile on her face.

It was easy to see the muscles primed and ready for action for Hinata, looking through her byakugan. The energy, she couldn't call it chakra, that the girl was pulling from around her was concentrated heaviest in her nervous system. Given that she didn't even know what she was dealing with, she couldn't even make an estimate about how strong the girl was.

"Your name is Naruto?" Ryoko asked.

"Yeah, Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto said. "Greatest ninja in all of Konoha."

"Then, I am ready Uzuamaki-san," she said, bowing once again.

"All right," Naruto said, shrugging. "Your loss."

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly. "…be careful."

Naruto turned to look at Hinata and blinked in confusion.

"I'm not going to hurt her," he said, shaking his head before turning a friendly, arrogant look back towards the younger girl. "Let's get this started."

Both looked toward Iruka, who raised his hand for the spar and let it drop.

Naruto shot forward at his opponent. Not at his full speed of course, no reason to hurt the girl. Heck, she wasn't even moving in response.

"S..sumimasen, Uzumaki-san," the girl said as he got closer.

The girl bent aside of Naruto's attack, just barely.

"Damn it, almost had her," Naruto thought as he twisted about to kick, only to watch his leg slip easily over the girl's crouching form. He came down into a wide sweep only to find the girl easily hopping up over the attack. "Damn it, quit hopping about."

"I..I do not mean to be a…p…problem," the girl said as she easily landed and slipped her head just aside three punches in succession.

"Fight properly, damn it!" Naruto demanded, spinning into a roundhouse as he did.

"Sumimasen," Ryoko said as she ducked low under the kick again.

Naruto smirked as the girl fell for the trick and, instead of sweeping, he dived into an overhead hammer blow.

Or would have if the girl hadn't raised her bokken up into the crook of his knee and pushed, sending him into an unexpected twisting motion that brought him down to the ground in a dizzying crash that had Iruka and Hinata wincing sympathetically.

"Grrk," Naruto grunted needlessly from his landing point.

The black-haired girl stood up gracefully and again returned to the posture she had at the beginning.

"Sumimasen…Uzumaki-san," she said quietly.

Naruto stood up, but almost toppled over again as his body was still trying to recover his sense of balance. When he finally did, the young student looked across at the younger girl across from him with a new appreciation for her skills.

"What kind of monster is this girl?" Naruto wondered to himself.

"D…do you wish to continue, Uzumaki-san?" Ryoko asked.

"I think that'll be enough for now," Iruka said quickly, putting himself forward before Naruto could say something.

"Ah…okay..." she turned toward Iruka and her cheerful face faded again into uncertainty and confusion. "Ano…shinobi-sama."

"My name's Iruka Umino, Ryoko-chan," Iruka said.

"Arigato, Umino-sama," Ryoko said, bowing deeply and then turning toward Naruto. "Uzumaki-san. It was…enjoyable."

"Maybe you can come again, and we can work on your chakra-control," Iruka suggested, a bit taken back at the sama added to his name.

"Iie," Ryoko said pleasantly. "I…I do not use chakra. I use chi."

With that she bowed again and demurely walked into the academy to change back into her kimono.

Naruto cursed to himself as she left earshot realizing that he'd never live this down if it got out. Losing to a little girl from outside the village like that. And what was with all the politeness and crap.

"I tell ya, she's stranger than Hinata over there," Naruto said, gesturing to where Hinata had edged out into view.

Iruka winced at the wording even as Hinata bit her lip in response to the comment.

"Anyway, what's this chi stuff she was talking about?" Naruto asked.

****

Heading back home, food and other necessities finally purchased, Ryoko paused to see Joseibi coming back home alongside one of the ninja chunin who handed her a scroll with markers she'd seen at the Academy.

Quietly, Ryoko stopped walking and leaped up to the roof of the apartment she was being provided and walked in through the roof access down to their place. She set the groceries on counter and put the perishables in the fridge before walking to the room she shared with her sister and changing out of her kimono for her black training gi.

She was out the window and leaping away just as Joseibi entered the apartment. The blonde Saotome saw the groceries still out on the counter and cursed quietly.

Joseibi sighed and walked to her sister's manga collection and flipping through them. Might as well have something to read while she waited. She settled on one and sat down irritably to read.

The sun was just coming down when she finally heard the door open and saw Ryoko walk in, training gi dusty and sweaty from her work out.

"You saw me coming in, didn't you?" Joseibi asked.

"Hai, Imouto-chan," Ryoko said. "You want to join the Academy here?"

"Hai, Oneesan," Joseibi said. "It's better than having Mom threaten to carve you and me up, isn't it?"

"Imouto-chan," Ryoko said, sighing. "She is not going to hit me with the sword."

"Then what else is she gonna do with it," Joseibi asked.

"S…she will g…g…give it to me," Ryoko said.

"So, because you're not what she wants, she'll give you a sword for punishment?" Joseibi asked. "What kind of sense does that make?"

"I….if you join the Leaf here, Joseibi-chan," Ryoko said quietly. "You do not need to w…w…worry about it."

"So, you're not mad?" the blonde girl asked.

"Iie," Ryoko said. "I am quite fine now. Shall I start dinner. I want to try a new recipe for egg-rolls."

"Ehh, whatever," Joseibi asked. "Where'd you go for the last few hours anyway?"

"Training," Ryoko said.

That was an interesting training ground, however, obviously meant for more people. She didn't get near the challenge out of it she would have if other people had been training on it at the same time. After all, she was usually no where near the traps she set off in her practice. As it stood, she was even able to start using the traps as weapons and tools against the field as a whole.

Whoever had set it up was a genius.

****

The next morning a certain newly graduated team was walking with their jonin-sensei to begin training.

"Now, I have personally set up this training ground as a trial to test the three of you to the utmost extent of your youth's potential," Might Guy said, the not even present yet sunlight glittering off of his unnaturally white teeth.

"Sensei," Tenten said as she came to the end of the path. "Is this the training ground?"

As the rest of her team topped the rise, Guy gasped in shock, eyes going wide in disbelief as he stared at the demolished training ground.

"It looks like it was hit by an obsessive compulsive tornado," Tenten continued as she pointed to the neatly stacked training dummies, organized in clear piles by, type, location gathered from and severity of structural damage.

"Ah…ah….ah," Guy said looking about.

****

Author's Notes: okay, next we get to start from the infamous monument grafitti.

Note: I thought of Naruto pulling a surprise hit on her, or at least making her block, but, pre-Kage Bushin, I'm not sure I could rationalize that.

That was his first real skill (not including Sexy no Jutsu) and he didn't start pulling his stuff together until after that.


	3. Fitting

Joseibi blinked as some sort of uproar erupted throughout the academy and several instructors ran by in the halls outside the classroom. Her history instructor was about to fall them when a shout rang out from Iruka-sensei to stay.

The blonde's hands moved quietly through the simple seal on one of her only jutsu skills. As the genjutsu completed, the history teacher's mind rewound back about two seconds, to just before Iruka-sensei's instruction to stay.

And off he went with the other teachers, apparently after that Naruto clown from the upper classes.

Stretching out with a self-satisfied smirk, relieved that she'd made the jutsu just in time, she leaned forward amidst the sound of kids recently freed from the grip of their tyrannically boring instructor.

Now she could get some decent sleep.

"Well," and adult's voice cut through the peaceful approach of Joseibi's hard earned rest. "Looks like you're without an instructor. We'll have to remedy that."

The blonde student opened her eyes and took in the tall woman with red eyes in the white outfit.

"I think now's a good time to see what you all know about the basics of genjutsu," the woman said, with a smirk directed at Joseibi that deflated the eight-year old quite easily.

Good thing she was on hand looking over the next graduating class.

"Ahh, are we going to learn how to destroy people's minds?!" Konohamaru declared loudly.

"Baka," Joseibi muttered.

****

Ryoko hummed quietly to herself as she swept up the step of the house behind her. Most of the people passing on the street paid her no mind, after all, few would consider sweeping a noteworthy activity.

The owner of said house was gaping in near shock in surprise as he held a bottle of flavored soda and taking in the nearly spotless appearance of the house.

"Th…the whole house was mired in the debris from the contractors this morning," he said, pointing about. "Where are all those awful concrete bricks?"

"I…I am al..lmost done with them, sir," Ryoko said as she continued sweeping up the grey dust at her feet. "D…do I get the b…bonus you mentioned earlier?"

The man's eyebrow twitched as he remembered the rash promise he'd made on hearing the girl say that she would be finished cleaning the house in a day. Given that she was such a skittish little thing, and just barely the age most ninja graduated the academy without being part of it, he thought it was a harmless promise to make.

He'd be eating light for a week or so now.

"Brat! Come back here!" a voice shouted out angrily from an angle above.

Ryoko and her client blinked and started to look up in that direction only to see a small rain of pain and buckets streaming downward towards them.

The black-haired girl's eyes flashed orange as she neatly dodged a small wave of colored fluid and deflected three buckets from the path of hitting her client. As she landed daintily on the toes of one foot in a crane stance, to avoid spotting paint on her clothes, Ryoko turned to look at the house and the paint that now criss-crossed all over it.

"Ano…." she said, eyes slightly touched by orange as she looked at her work of the day nearly destroyed in a few instants.

"Miss…" her client said more than a little irritated.

Turning slowly around, and lowering one foot almost to the paint covered ground, Ryoko blinked as she saw the man splattered in several colors of paint, eyebrow twisting in irritation.

"Ano…" Ryoko said hopelessly, biting her lip.

****

The Hokage rolled his eyes as a pair of distraught chunin burst into his quarters, distracting him in the practice of his calligraphy.

"Hokage-sama!" they shouted.

"I hope this isn't something trivial," the Hokage said. "Like something about one of Naruto's pranks."

"B…but, Hokage-sama," one of the chunin said. "He's gone too far this time."

"And what has he done?" the Hokage asked.

"He's put graffiti all over the Hokage Monument!" the chunin declared.

The Hokage took a deep breath of on his pipe and released the smoke back out. Such a pointless thing to come barging into his room for. A troublesome student and harmless pranks weren't things to bother the Hokage with.

****

Ryoko sighed as she counted the money she'd ended up getting from her little job. It wasn't as much as she had been hoping for since she wasn't able to get all the paint out of the façade before some of it soaked into the wood.

"I almost earned that extra money," Ryoko sighed. "I n..need to be much more aware of my surroundings."

She glanced back toward the mountainside monument and shook her head at the sight, maybe she should see about cleaning it. It would be a great way to do some extra training in the Kakeru Umareta.

The girl was considering that as she walked up the road to the Academy, to see a small group of advanced students start walking out of the building with sour faces. She stepped aside as they passed through and watched and felt them pass.

Strong ripples, their chakra coloring the chi that flowed out of them, in the current of the world.

Ryoko didn't have the best of ideas of what to make of each. Her father's explanation of chi seemed quite similar to his explanations of everything else.

Very vague and followed by wonderfully intense training sessions that she had to figure out on the spot.

It was not that she quite disrespected her father after all, he was able to create very effective means of training in various techniques. Of course, sometimes she suspected he was surprised at what she learned from his training methods. She just didn't have the overwhelming level of…respect for her father that she did for her mother.

In any case, Genma seemed to know how to channel chi quite well, but he'd only had a vague sense of how to explain what it was or how to interpret it.

The girl did note something about the sour looking one, however, the chi that came out of him was…thick somehow. The world seemed heavier when he was about.

It reminded her too much of what things felt like when she had one of her panic attacks, just with a different flavor and not so intense. Then again, he was a chakra wielder, so most of his emotions would probably get bottled up within him, at least, if she understood the theories in Joseibi's text books correctly in comparison with what she'd observed about chi.

In any case, the world was heavy around her only during her shameful fits. It was heavy around Uchiha-san all the time, even just a little bit.

It always made her uncomfortable and cautious.

Sasuke for his part looked up at the younger girl and frowned expressively as she flinched back away from him, bowing politely in apology.

Just what he needed more of, curious girls.

"Is that scaredy cat ogling, Sasuke," Sakura wondered darkly.

Ino paused in her rivalry with the pink-haired girl for a moment to consider Ryoko. The black-haired girl, slunk under their glares and stepped off toward the academy.

"Ano…" she said as she disappeared, bowing one more time to the older class.

"Of course she is," Ino said. "Who wouldn't want my Sasuke."

"He's not your, Sasuke!" Sakura declared loudly as they broke down into fighting with each other and several other would be kunoichi who'd heard the discussion.

Sweating nervously at the disturbance even her mere presence seemed to be causing.

As she came in, she saw Iruka-Sensei talking to Uzumaki-san.

"Ah! Iruka-sensei, Uzumaki-san!" Ryoko said waving to them cheerfully.

The older blonde boy breathed a sigh of relief as the energetic girl distracted Iruka-sensei for a moment.

"Ryoko-chan," Iruka said, laying a hand on Naruto's shoulder as the other started to try to sneak away. "Here to pick up your sister?"

"Hai, Iruka-sensei," Ryoko said, bowing deeply and suddenly enough to make Naruto flinch.

The way the girl swung from energetic and cheerful to frenetic and scared, with a simmering skittishness in between was always rather strange to watch. Still, she was a good fighter for all the behavior. He'd wonder why she wasn't in the academy if it weren't for the fact that Iruka-sensei had told him there was nobody at the academy that could teach her outside of taijutsu, and she was already past basic instruction.

"So what have you been doing today?" Iruka asked politely.

"I was cleaning a house for extra money," Ryoko said.

"Don't you and your sister have a stipend from the Hokage?" Iruka asked.

"Hai, Iruka-sensei," Ryoko said. "But it was good for training. And the owner said he would give me a bonus if I finished in the day. So I would have been able to take Joseibi to the movies and all-you-can-eat dinner to celebrate advancing this week."

"Would have?" Iruka asked. "You didn't finish?"

Ryoko's mood shifted swiftly again and she bit her lip as she slunk into herself again.

"Ano…" the girl said. "I would have, but I c…couldn't. Could not. Could not! Stop the paint."

"Paint?" Iruka asked as he turned to look at Naruto.

"I…I..failed to acc..count for the paint th…that fell out of the s…sky," Ryoko admitted stuttering. "I..I will have to train myself to be more aw..ware…in the f…future. I shall have to be satisfied with ju…just the movies."

Naruto wanted to shrink small enough to disappear suddenly.

"Well, I'm certain you won't have that problem again anytime soon," Iruka said pointedly staring at Naruto.

"Heh…heh, sorry, Ryoko-chan," Naruto said nervously.

Ryoko blinked and looked from Naruto to Iruka.

"Ano…" she said, still blinking. "Why?"

Iruka and Naruto sweated a bit at Ryoko's apparent lack of understanding of the situation.

"Oi, Onesan," Joseibi said as she walked out, waving. "I'm done here!"

The younger Saotome practically sauntered out of her classroom.

"Imouto-chan!" Ryoko said in frantic tone. "That is not proper pos…."

"Uzumaki! I almost had a perfect nap-time because of you," she declared. "Next time get the jonin to come running too!"

"Imouto-chan…." Ryoko said quietly in a drawn out manner, eyes narrowing slightly as she looked toward the teacher."

"Err, gomen, Iruka-sensei," Joseibi said sheepishly as she looked to her sister.

"Now, stand up straight," Ryoko continued in her more normal tone of lecturing.

"Whatever," Joseibi said. "Are we going?"

"Hai! Hai!" Ryoko said cheerfully. "Let us go!"

"Do you have to be like that? Oneesan?" Joseibi asked as she followed after her sister. "It's so embarrassing to have a sister like you."

"Sumimasen, Imouto-chan," Ryoko responded as they exited the gate. "I have to do something tonight so I will not be able to make dinner, but I made some egg roll…Imouto-chan! Wait for me! Do not eat all of them. Some are snacks for me! I! Mou! To! Chan!"

****

"Have you heard?" Asuma asked as he moved to join his fellow jonin in the Hokage's office for discussing the upcoming graduates.

"Hmm?" Kakashi asked from where he was lounging and reading a book.

"What's going on?" Kurenai asked.

"Might Guy and his team are back in town," Asuma said in an undertone.

The other two jonin turned to look at him, Kakashi's interest being only momentary before he turned back to his book.

"You know what this means," Kurenai said.

"Yeah, yeah," Kakashi said. "I'm guessing the pool is already formed."

Asuma nodded.

****

Hinata paused in her training to watch the sun sinking down over the horizon. Her cousin was back in town today, which meant tomorrow she probably wouldn't be able to use this training ground for a bit.

Neji would not like her to be hanging around while he trained with his team.

It was so relaxing out here with no one to watch her and see how useless she was.

The Hyuuga girl could almost stay out there all the time and she would if there wasn't something bigger than a desire to be left alone driving her.

Acknowledgement.

She'd failed to find it from her father and cousin.

Besides, she wanted someone else to acknowledge her.

Someone who was seeking acknowledgement just like her.

"Naruto-kun," she sighed.

As she sat and rested after her personal training session, a training session that had her lightly covered in sweat and breathing slightly hard, she found herself wishing that she could push herself like Naruto did everyday. Just how could he bare to strive to succeed like that against everyone that said he would never amount to anything.

He certainly wasn't the established weak link that she was.

Nobody who could spend so much time doing everything they could to improve themselves could ever be a loser.

She wondered why nobody else could see that about him.

That thought passed through her mind as the sun finally set. She'd like to get in some more training, but tomorrow was the graduation test and she had already practiced all the jutsu that were likely to be dealt with. It was time to head home and get some rest.

Sighing at the necessity, Hinata started walking slowly off back toward the village.

The Hyuuga was surprised to find someone else coming out of the overall training area toward the same return path, pulling a moderate sized wagon by hand. The wagon was empty, but it still had to be quite a handful for the short girl that was handling it.

It didn't take Hinata long to catch up to the wagon, curious to see who had been on the field at the same time as her.

When she recognized the chi-adept almost instantly.

"He..hello, Ryoko-chan," Hinata said as she slowed to match the other girl's stride.

"Ah, Hyuuga-san," the other girl said. "What are you doing out this late?"

Curiosity made Hinata want to take a peek through her Byakugan at the chi-user and update what the disturbance around her was like, but she didn't want to do something so impolite.

"I had to do some extra training to get ready for graduation," Hinata said quietly.

"Ah, I see," Ryoko said, nodding in approval. "You train quite a lot, Hy..Hyuuga-san, you must be very good."

"You too, Ryoko-chan," Hinata said, unsure as always how to respond to the only person that referred to her with an honorific. "The handprint is still on the Academy wall after two years."

Ryoko flinched at that and bit her lip.

"Su…sumimasen," Ryoko said. "I…did not mean to do t…."

"Umm, Ryoko-chan," Hinata said, hesitantly. "Why do you train so much?"

"Oh…mother allows me," Ryoko said. "As long as I learn how to use a sword. I…I am not quite very good at that yet."

"Not very good? You beat Naruto easy," Hinata said.

"But that was a while ago," Ryoko said. "His unarmed technique has improved, and my sword has not. L…last time he ch…challenged me I only won because he disarmed me. I rely too much on unarmed skill. But I am to the p…point I can self-train in that."

Hinata wondered briefly how good the girl was in unarmed combat.

Now wasn't the time to test, however, so late in the evening and with both having things they needed to do that night or tomorrow. Hinata held off on challenging her just yet.

"You could always ask for one of the weapon masters here to train you," Hinata suggested.

Ryoko stopped and blinked as if in thought.

"Ano…" she said, pondering.

Hinata paused herself and looked back toward the girl until the younger, black-haired girl noticed she'd fallen behind.

"Ahh!" Ryoko gasped when she finally did. "Sumimasen!"

"I…it's all right," Hinata said waving off the concern.

"So, why do you train, Hyuuga-san?" Ryoko asked.

Hinata flushed brightly for a moment and started pushing her fingers together.

"I…I…want someone to…acknowledge me," she said finally.

"Acknowledge you?" Ryoko said. "Ano…"

"I want…someone…to recognize…that I…am worth….a little something…" Hinata said. "Don't you?"

"I…worth something?" Ryoko asked as if it had never been something she considered before.

Hinata twisted her head too look at the friendly girl as they walked along and frowned.

"I think you're worth something, Ryoko-chan" Hinata said.

The other girl bit her lip as if not sure she was supposed to accept that comment or not. The remainder of their walk to the village was spent on other topics.

Ryoko had very…strange ideas on how the various girls could solve their problems with Sasuke Uchiha.

They were well into the village when another group started working its way up to the training ground.

****

"Isn't it a little late for training, sensei?" Tenten asked.

"Nonsense Tenten!" Guy declared as they walked under a group of trees. "Not every fight you have will be in the bright light of day. You must learn to harness your Powers of Youth even in the dark of night. And that is what we're going to be practicing as we spar in…"

The sound of a rattle cut through the sound of Guy Sensei's speech.

"Did anyone else hear that?" Tenten asked as she looked around.

Another rattling sound across the other side of the small clearing came to their ears.

"Yes!" Lee said. "I do believe I heard the sound of something."

Another two rattling sounds joined the first two which were turning a bit more rapid.

Neji's eyebrows twitched as he started the seals to activate his byakugan, silently kicking himself for not checking the field beforehand. Perhaps it was just having returned from a mission and having forgotten the dangers of the training ground.

As his byakugan came active, he saw, buried under shallow dirt all across the plot, coiled springs of various sizes and held tight by triggers connected intricately by wires all across the area tightly meshed together and covered by the dirt. Each with a mousetrap set at the front.

It was set so that anybody walking atop the ground would set the wires vibrating against each other and each further step would make more vibrations in those wires.

Wires that were already vibrating against each other in a series that was swiftly unlocking the triggers on every spring, causing the baby rattle at the tail to vibrate more and more violently, giving them the audio cues they were hearing.

"Watch out!" Neji shouted aloud.

In the next moment, the ground below started to erupt.

After about three minutes, Team Guy limped out of the training ground. Neji's eyes were closed as he removed the third mousetrap that had decided to latch tightly onto his person.

"Guy-Sensei," Lee said. "Is this the training you had in mind?"

"No, Lee-kun," Guy declared. "I'm afraid we've stumbled upon someone else's training exercise."

"Again," Neji muttered. "This has been happening at least once a month for a year."

"Indeed, Neji-kun," Guy said. "We must eventually find the maker of these trials and request more deliberate training in the future."

"What are you doing with that?" Neji asked coldly.

"It's cute," Tenten said, holding up the booby trap, carved into a good likeness of a snake with a big, friendly head and long slinky body, that now that the spring wasn't primed to launch, coiled around Tenten's arm fairly amicably.

Neji's eyebrow twitched.

****

Joseibi panted heavily as she looked across the field to where her sister was returning to the Utsuro Kamae, the blank form. Her father's Utsuro Kamae was an over-exaggerated pose that gave something of the appearance of a rank amateur's level of skill. Ryoko's was the stance of a demure young maiden, even down to holding a sword improperly to start.

Though that last might have been more because Ryoko was self-taught was mostly. Through manga, no less. Their father had no sword skills beyond what translated from his skills with a rod or baton, and the elder sister hadn't sought out a master yet.

As a result Ryoko was comparatively weak with that sword.

Joseibi was careful not to accidentally disarm her sister in their spars.

The younger Saotome watched her sister bow politely.

That was usually the signal for the spar to end, but Joseibi didn't let her guard down just yet.

A Saotome never did.

In theory.

In practice, Joseibi found that Saotomes let their guards down a lot depending on what you meant. Emotionally speaking, Ryoko was full of openings, and it didn't take much to predict the old man's actions.

Still, she let herself stand up a bit straight and glance toward the glimmer of light on the horizon.

"Sun's going to be up in an hour or so," she said.

"Hai, hai! Imouto-chan," Ryoko said. "We just have one more special exercise to complete and it should not take too long."

Joseibi flinched at the words "special exercise".

The blonde girl had several definitions for that term.

These included:

Aggravating.

Annoying.

Painful.

Embarrassing.

Devious.

Oh so very, very devious.

Wrapped up in her sister's runty little face.

But they were useful.

There wasn't anything visible that looked like something that qualified "special" in Ryoko's vocabulary, that meant they needed to go to another part of the field.

"Yeah, yeah," Joseibi said, stretching out. "Let me get my kunai and stuff."

"Hai, hai!" Ryoko said approvingly. "I'm glad you're cleaning up after yourself, Imouto-chan."

"I just want all the ammo I can get," Joseibi muttered before moving up to join her sister and walking with the older girl towards and through a small stand of trees to find a shaded clearing…

…that was littered with loose dirt and cast about fragments of wood and metal.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, looking about in confusion and biting her lip as she tried to figure out what had happened.

"Well," Joseibi said, snickering as she put her hands behind her back . "I guess I've got a little free time before the Academy today."

****

As Ryoko worked her way quietly through the crowd of parents and family congratulating the newly graduated, she heard a few muttered remarks.

"He's the only one that didn't graduate huh?" a woman was saying.

"Hmm, serves him right," another said. "Can you imagine him as a ninja?"

"Isn't…"

"Sumimasen," Ryoko said, interrupting. "W..why would Uzumaki-san not be a g…good ninja?"

"Don't you…" the woman stopped as she saw Ryoko and realized how old she was. "Oh, you wouldn't be old enough to know, just he's not someone you can trust."

"Tha…that is not very fair," Ryoko protested somehow managing to be firm despite the stuttering.

"You wouldn't understand girl," the other woman said as both started to walk away.

Ryoko bit her lip, though it didn't seem to be in nervousness this time, more like she was trying to keep herself from saying something. There was a slight difference in her normally skittish frame that seemed to imply an idea that wouldn't bend underneath somewhere.

She was about to follow when a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"You can't convince them," the old Hokage said. "Only Naruto can do that."

Ryoko blinked in almost sheer awe as the old warrior smiled at her and then passed forward to call Iruka-sensei into the school for a moment.

"I wish I could do that," Hinata said, watching the scene with the women and Ryoko from around a corner. "I…I can't stand up for Naruto-kun like that."

When she turned back to watch Naruto some more, however, the blonde had already left somewhere.

The Hyuuga sighed in disappoint and then blinked as a yellow fox started skittering past her, low to the ground and weaving in and among people, trying to avoid being noticed.

"What…?" Hinata asked. "Isn't that one of the younger students' transformations….?"

Joseibi's efforts, however, were for not as her elder sister suddenly appeared in her path and bent down to scoop her up.

"WAI!!! Imouto-chan! You advanced! WAI!! WAI!!" Ryoko declared twirling around with the very embarrassed looking fox cutely before pulling her back in and starting a lecturing tone. "But we must talk about these grades. Your instructors tell me that you did not turn in that essay on hazardous plants for the survival course and I know that you wrote it because we went to the library for three days to research it…Now where can we find some hot water."

The lecturing continued as Ryoko started walking out the gate holding a mortified, if gently carried blonde fox.

****

"So…the Saotomes' morning training was ruined," Asuma said.

"And Team Guy got…extra training," Kakashi said.

"I think that's my bet," Kurenai said, smirking.


	4. Teaming

Ryoko smiled quietly to herself as she started to walk up into the hills and forest around Konoha, holding her sister's fox form in her hands. Aside from a few incidences here and there, today was a very satisfying day. Her sister was advancing in classes and soon it looked like her younger sister would be well past worrying about their family honor issues.

Speaking of said sister, the annoyed growl from the fox in her arms told her that Joseibi was beginning to get…curious about why they weren't going to the apartment just yet.

"Probably something sappy and 'bonding' oriented," Joseibi thought to herself.

"I just want to see the sunset, Imouto-chan," Ryoko said. "There is a spot up here that is quite beautiful to watch from. And then we shall go to a movie."

As they came to a rise above the majority of surrounding trees, Ryoko stopped, looked off toward the setting sun and took a large breath of air. The ball of the sun fading from blinding yellow into a oranges and reds that spread all across the horizon like a batch of paints spilled against wall and not yet completely mixed.

The sky's blues were slowly darkening and thickening together as well, turning into a tapestry of silver beads sewn onto a sable cloth. As the sun finally vanished, Ryoko started to turn back to the path down into the town, humming along.

Joseibi turned her head to the side, ears quirking as she listened to something further out into the night.

Ryoko looked down at her sister.

"Is there something out there?" she asked her sister.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Ryoko turned aside from the path and started to walk in the direction that Joseibi was staring. Struggling, the fox squirmed out of Ryoko's hold and moved to the ground before pattering off into the woods to investigate what it had heard.

"Imouto-chan!" Ryoko said quietly. "Wait for me! It could be a bear."

Ryoko couldn't move through the woods as fast a Joseibi could, not unless she wanted to start leaping about in her kimono.

Joseibi herself was just looking for something more interesting than the beauty of nature around her, and the soft voices she heard ahead certainly qualified.

Granted, some part of her remembered the academy instructions should you find anything strange outside the village: don't investigate, immediately find a ninja and tell them what you heard, no risking yourself.

However, she really didn't think there was anything dangerous around. It was probably just a couple of people out for a midnight stroll like her sister was taking her on. That opinion changed as she pushed her way out of some foliage to see a pair of strange adults with no headband talking suspiciously to one of the academy teachers.

"Just a fox," one of the strangers said, starting to turn back toward the teacher, a bishie guy that Joseibi remembered was named Mizuki or something like that.

The stranger was a slender man of less than average height, but intense muscle tone and wearing several holsters for ninja tools despite his lack of an allegiance identifying head band. Beside him was a another man, about the same height,but much thicker and heavily toned. He was wearing a pair of guardless daggers at his back.

Joseibi was already creeping back into the woods when the silver-haired apparent traitor turned to look to see her small form.

"That's one of the students!" Mizuki-sensei said turning back into the woods. "She transforms."

Joseibi yipped as she tried to curse her bad luck pushed herself forward to disappear into the woods rushing and yipping loudly.

"Get her," Mizuki snapped, pushing one of the two men towards the fleeing fox. "I have a demon to deal with."

Joseibi heard that and tried to remember everything she could about evading pursuit as she dodged under bushes and trees trying to get back to where she'd left her sister behind and get the both of them to leave the area and get back to town.

Though she couldn't hear her sister's calls anymore, though she couldn't quite remember when they had stopped. That worried her.

At least they'd have the same trouble keeping up with her that her sister did.

Then something slammed down in the path ahead of her.

The knife wielding man.

Quickly she gathered herself up and buried herself under the bush she hadn't quite left. Behind her, another landing told her where the other man was.

"You're here somewhere," the slender man said. "We heard you in the bushes. Did you find a burrow somewhere to dig into?"

"Why don't you come out, kid," the other said, drawing his knife. "Fight like a real ninja. Isn't that what you want to be?"

They were trying to rattle her, flush her out, and as much as she recognized it, she still felt it was working. After all, whether she could hear Ryoko or not, any moment now, her sister would be…

"Ano…" the quiet voice cut through the small, tree-shaded area drawing all eyes to where Ryoko appeared standing near the bushes Joseibi had chosen to hide nearby.

"Sumimasen," Ryoko continued. "Ha..ha…have y..you s…s..seen…"

"There she is, she dropped the henge!" the knife wielder said drawing his other blade and charging in toward Ryoko.

"Ah..ah! Ya..yama..te!" Ryoko stuttered as she stumbled backward feet rolling upward underneath the man's stomach.

The flow of chi moved upward from the earth, through where her palms and upper back, twisting through muscles and gathering as it went out through her legs into the man above her. From there, it carried the man with it into the air with a rush of energy.

The flow of chi split around the tree trunk five feet away, the man's body did not. He fell, senseless, at the base of the tree.

"Sumimasen," Ryoko declared nervously as she rolled up to her feet. "I…I tripped."

"You won't get lucky again, girl!" the other said as he tossed a trio of kunai at the girl in the kimono.

Ryoko shrieked and pulled into herself, letting one kunai past, snatching the second and swinging her bokken across into the third. Before she'd swung the bokken, she'd thought she'd caught the beginning of another ripple of approaching motion, but then her amateurish bokken skills set all the delicate flows to nonsense and her hair's trigger of warning was eliminated.

With just eyes and ears, she only barely caught sight of the five shurikens before they reached her. She spun away two of them completely, but one sliced across her cheek and another slashed through her kimono slicing a line through her shoulder.

The third sunk into her thigh, dangerously close to a lethal injury for even such a small weapon. Some of the muscle tore, and it sent a small wave of pain through her.

Out of that evasive spin the kunai she had snatched earlier was launched back toward the second of her foes. She missed of course, as he launched himself into the air above the battlefield.

Which was what she wanted.

Ryoko jumped up into the air, angling away from the attacker's arc, but not so much that she would successively evade him.

She didn't want to.

"Ite!" Ryoko snapped out as her opponent fired more weapons at her, which, mid air as she was, she could only work to deflect, bokken held behind her this time as she used her free hand to do so.

Then their arcs met and, as a the ninja launched a kick, Ryoko's hand reached out to grip the incoming ninja's attacking limb. In that instant all his momentum became Ryoko's as she anchored against him and flipped up around behind and above, using the acrobatic motion to turn that upward momentum into downward and slamming downward into her opponent.

Gravity, the combined momentum of both warriors enhanced by Ryoko's funneling chi downward through her body into her opponent, all combined with a small eruption of dirt.

Rolling away, Ryoko started to stand but found the previously injured leg unwilling to do so at the moment. Catching her breath, she took the moment to let the chi through her leg and encourage the tissue to heal.

Ryoko felt the knife-wielder coming up behind her as she was still catching her breath, and started to turn about to face the attack, but knew she'd let her guard down too early. Father would have shut her down seconds ago.

She was about to be shut down now.

A small yellow bundle of fur and skin leaped up into the way, growling and yipping as it snapped at the knife-wielding ninja's face. The man snapped angrily before forcefully tearing the fox away and tossing the yellow-furred creature across the scene where it bounced off a tree with a sharp yip sound.

"Imouto-chan!" Ryoko shouted as the fox landed a bit off.

"Oh, she's your sister," the knife-wielder said, a sickening smile on his face as he turned to look back at his original target.

The bokken dropped from Ryoko's hand as she surged forward, fire building already in her eyes and across her skin as tears streamed out into steam and the vegetation around her caught fire with her passage.

Ryoko leaped into a spinning kick that he barely managed to dodge and was followed immediately by a knife-hand into the top of his temple that, had he not rolled at the last moment, would have cleaved into his skull. Even the heavy handed touch she did lay on him rose blisters and burned hair away from his scalp.

He was off-balance as Ryoko twisted about to land in front of him.

The black-haired girl, wracked by fear for her sister, twisted about, refocusing her own chi momentum downward into her feet as she landed. The energy moved out of her into the earth and rebounded back upward, stressing the bones and muscles with the flow as she worked to bring it up her body into her shoulders and down the arms and into the man's chest.

The martial artist wasn't sending the chi back into the flow for now, no, she was going to rebound as much of it back into herself as possible. She would keep gathering more and forcing what she gathered to remain at her direction until the threat to her family was settled.

The man struck a boulder, caught between the stone and Ryoko's burning hands. The enhanced momentum of chi cracked ribs as it passed through him the first time, his skin searing under Ryoko's hands, and then the chi rebounded off the cracking rock, through his chest again and pushing into Ryoko's arms.

The chi swirled down into her feet again as she collected the once again rebounded momentum into a short hop and spin that let her swirl more chi in from the air around her. Twinges of pain worked all the way up her body as she directed the chi build up into her foot which lanced straight out to catch the head of her target between her and the boulder.

Instead the Saotome found her foot firmly gripped and herself being tossed off course. All the chi she'd built up to that point was lost as she had to right her herself in mid air. Without the vicious flow she'd built, Ryoko could feel the exhaustion all throughout her body.

"Now, now," the new fighter said as the figure that had grabbed Ryoko burst into smoke. "We'd like to ask both these men some questions first."

Seeing the familiar image of the man that had originally found her and her sister outside Konoha, and Joseibi's furry, yellow body limping out of the bushes toward her, ears bent back pleadingly and several clones of Kakashi moving about to extinguish the fires spawned by Ryoko.

Panting, Ryoko dropped to her knees, fire dying away from her body and finally her eyes.

"Su…sumimasen, Kakashi-sama," Ryoko said as Joseibi padded over to her and started nuzzling at her hand. "I owe…Joseibi…a…a..mo..movie."

****

"Iruka Umino suffered from damage to the spine and several serious cuts and some blood less, made worse by exertion," the medical ninja reported to the Hokage. "But minor injuries over all. Joseibi Saotome sprained her wrist and Naruto Uzumaki was merely suffering from exertion."

"The prisoners are all severely injured," the medical ninja continued. "One of the two that pursued the Saotomes had the least severe injuries, broken ribs and a collapsed lung. The other two were very close to death from severe blunt force trauma, ruptured organs and, in the one man's case, burns that went as deep as his ribs. They'll both survive, even recover, though in both cases it was a near thing."

Ryoko Saotome's condition was more…curious," the medic finished.

"Go on," Hokage said, turning about.

"Several burst blood vessels, minute tears through most of the muscle groups of the body including the edges of the lungs and heart, a cut on her thigh nearly hit a fatal artery, and several others produced minor blood loss," the medic explained. "And she appears to have what seems to be a serious sunburn over her entire skin. Nothing was serious yet, but if whatever jutsu she was either using or suffering continued, it would have been bad fairly quickly."

He didn't mention some of the signs of older traumas they'd found.

"I think I might be able to explain some of that," Kakashi said idly.

The medical ninja turned to look at the jonin expectantly and the Hokage gestured for him to continue.

"The sharingan can get a glimpse of what she does," Kakashi explained. "And what I saw reminded me of when she was pressing herself to work on building her strength and ability, only much more extreme. I'm guessing she went past what she's currently safely capable of."

"Over-stressed the system," the medical ninja said, nodding. "That would explain the muscle tears and blood blisters, but not the burns."

"There are some earlier reports on something that may explain that," the Hokage said. "I'll make the relevant information available to you."

"All right, Hokage-sama," the medic said.

"If you can tell me when the patients are ready to see visitors," the Hokage said to the medic. "I would appreciate it. And when Ibiki might be able to take charge of his prisoners"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the medic said, flinching a bit at the name of Ibiki Morino, before turning about and leaving.

"Kakashi, is there anything else?" Sarutobi asked.

"Only that normally, Ryoko's chakra coils blunt the flow of her chi," Kakashi said. "She loses momentum and direction each time they interact and has to re-establish it at a loss of efficiency and leaking energy."

"The river flowing into a lake analogy," Sarutobi noted. "Most scrolls on the subject make mention of that."

"Only this time it was rivers flowing into whirlpools," Kakashi noted. "The chi flows were coming out stronger."

Sarutobi arched an eyebrow and turned to face Kakashi.

"That has, implications," Sarutobi noted. "But the levels of chakra and chi control necessary to achieve balance and ability to draw on both forces would be very high."

"I'm not a medical ninja," Kakashi said. "But I'm not sure Ryoko has a choice. That fire of hers, it touches both her chi and her chakra when it gets going…"

Sarutobi nodded, blowing out a small cloud of smoke.

"You have an assignment to prepare for," Sarutobi noted.

"Hai, hai," Kakashi said, sounding bored. "I'll let you know when they should be back at the Academy."

"Don't get cocky, Kakashi," Sarutobi smirked. "This is a good class, the team this time might surprise you."

"In my opinion, they're rarely ready at twelve or thirteen," Kakashi said, shrugging. "I'll see you then."

With Kakashi leaving, Sarutobi turned his mind to other conversations.

****

"I understand your point of view, Hiruzen," Koharu said from her seat. "It is unfair to punish a child for matters beyond her control. But we also have to consider the safety of the village as well. When the girl was merely a chi-adept, she was a curiosity, but this new development…"

"If we can protect Naruto, there should be no reason we can't help this girl," Hiruzen Sarutobi noted calmly. "The risk is not as severe."

"But Naruto is a citizen of the village, soon to be a shinobi if I understand your intentions," Homura noted. "Ryoko is merely a resident. Like it or not, our protection does not extend to her as it does to Naruto. And while we and most others will respect your decision, there are people who would do otherwise."

"Normally, you would side with Danzo on this matter," Hiruzen noted.

"This is a single girl with training in a rare skill and apparently a blood limit of unknown potential," Koharu noted. "It is not an entire clan of traitors, or even a jinchuriki. There are rewards and risks to both paths. So…we're staying neutral until more information is available to weigh the risks to the village."

"In the mean time," Hokage said. "You're warning me."

The other two elders stood up from their seats.

"If Konoha can gain a viable chi-training program," Homura confirmed. "Then we would be a step ahead of the other villages."

"Of course, we'd much prefer to have a chi-master than an emotionally scarred girl incompletely trained," Koharu added.

The Hokage lifted his head and smiled.

"A pity she can't afford to hire a mission to find a tutor," the Hokage said. "After all, a client is one of the things our laws protect almost as much as our citizens."

Both of his old friends looked at him in confusion for a brief moment before they left the office, a look of quiet consideration on their face.

****

The Hokage frowned.

The plan was transparent to be sure, Danzo would see right through it, but he also knew that, as interesting as Ryoko would be, she was of only very minor concern to the militant. The transparency of the plan would be a benefit in that regard, making pursuing situations with Ryoko far more trouble than they were worth.

Koharu and Homura usually disagreed about going to so much trouble for the sake of one individual as adverse the village as a whole. They didn't seem to realize that it was the individuals that made the village.

There was a point where an individual became a poison, but it was a poor idea to punish them before that had proven to be true. It was much better, upon seeing the situation might be developing, to attend to the person in question and make sure that they remained loyal and bound to the village. Rather than to attack them and force them to become the imagined threat.

He looked back at the psychological profile on Ryoko lying closed on his desk. Ibiki was doubtful that she'd accept a citizenship or a place as a ninja at the moment. She wasn't used to making major life choices for her own benefit. There was heavy evidence that she was of the opinion that she had no say in the direction of her own life save what leeway was given to her by her mother.

Fortunately, the parents were currently unreachable.

Genma was leaving behind a trail of small debts and petty crimes across the continent, while remaining hard to track down himself. Nodoka had disappeared soon after Kakashi had tracked her down and reported, apparently going off in search of her husband and daughters.

The further report suggested that the small side-jobs cleaning and such that Ryoko was taking were signs that she was breaking away from her dependence on others deciding her life, but it was still mostly tied to her responsibility to her younger sister.

Combined with this was an indication that she had a practical view towards combat. She leaned toward protecting comrades and citizens rather than eliminating threats, but there were some shinobi that were likewise. What's more, given her upbringing, she was unlikely to disobey what she considered an appropriate authority.

Meaning that she would likely be an asset to missions rather than a hindrance.

A knock at the office brought his attention to the door.

"Come in," he said, turning to see the messenger coming in.

"Hokage-sama, Iruka Umino and Ryoko Saotome are both awake and ready for visitors," the man said.

****

Naruto was walking up the stairs onto the recovery level where Iruka-sensei would be for the next couple of days. He walked with a sense of supreme elation as he considered what Iruka-sensei had said about him to that Mizuki creep. And now it was only going to be a few more short days before he was officially graduated.

Then it wouldn't be long before he was Hokage, and his face was up on that mountainside and everybody would acknowledge him.

He glanced down a hall and blinked to see the Third Hokage entering one of the rooms in that wing. It was a moment's consideration, but curiosity won out over the intention to visit Iruka-sensei for the moment.

Sneaking to the edge of the door, he listened in on what was happening inside.

"I am feeling fine, Hokage-sama," someone was saying, he recognized Ryoko Saotome's voice. "I merely over-did it a little."

"This was not a little," the Hokage said seriously. "You had tears in your lungs and heart."

"Th…they told me," Ryoko said.

"Is it all right for you to be sitting like that?" Sarutobi asked. "You don't have to be so formal in a hospital bed."

"I must show proper respect, Hokage-sama," Ryoko said. "A…nd they healed most of the problems."

Naruto peeked around the corner and noticed the bandages about Ryoko's hands, recognizing them as burn bandages from past experiences. He saw a few other bandaged sections where the girl's clothes didn't cover it.

"There is also the matter of what happens when you get…upset," he noted.

"Ano…" Ryoko said nervously.

"Do you know enough to train yourself to deal with both problems?" the Hokage asked.

"I th..thought so," she said quietly.

"I could open a mission for you," the Hokage noted. "To find tutors to help you deal with this problem."

"B..but…I d..do not have that s..sort of money," Ryoko noted. "That would be a…C ranked mission."

"More like B," the Hokage noted. "Chi-adepts are uncommon and masters are rare. They often stay on the move or in hidden and dangerous regions. However, I think we could work out a trade of sorts."

"T..trade," Ryoko asked, trying not to fidget

"You are obviously a skilled fighter," the Hokage said. "I think it would be a benefit to have you available for missions eventually."

"Ano…" Ryoko hesitated.

"I'm proposing a trade of services," the Hokage noted. "Not for you to become a ninja like your sister wants to."

"Ano…" the girl said again. "Father used to do jobs for people all the time, s…sealing spirits and eli…liminating bandits. I…I s…suppose th..that it is right for me to do so as well. An..nd you would help me find someone…to teach me?"

"That is the agreement," Hokage said. "We'd be each other's clients, honorbound to protect each other."

"Hai…hai," Ryoko said, biting her lip. "I..can do that. Wh..what are the appropriate procedures?"

"We'll discuss that later in the week, when you're released," the Hokage said, standing up from beside her. "In the meantime, I think I'm holding your visitors at bay. Naruto?"

Sheepishly, the young soon-to-be ninja walked into the room.

"Uzumaki-san!" Ryoko said. "Y…you came to visit me?"

"Uh, yeah, Ryoko-chan," Naruto said, embarrassed. "How are you doing."

"I am quite fine," Ryoko said, bowing stiffly while keeping a smile on her face.

"So, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

"I used too much chi," she said. "My body couldn't handle the strain. I suppose I pushed too hard, too quickly."

"Make sure to visit, Iruka-sensei before you leave, Naruto," the Hokage said as he stood up to leave Naruto in the room with Ryoko, a minor prank to repay the young man for eavesdropping.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Naruto said, before turning uncomfortably back towards Ryoko. "So, this is a training accident?"

"Ano…" Ryoko said hesitantly.

"Well, you gonna be in here long?" he asked. "I've still got to beat you sometime, and I think I've got a trick now to do it with."

"I..I think I sh..shall be out in a day or so," Ryoko said.

Hokage let the two continue talking as he left the room and started to head for Iruka's room.

He looked back and saw a little blond girl with a wrist wrapping and splint heading into Ryoko's room not long after he left. Ryoko's sister was already released then.

Which reminded him, he needed to talk to the Inuzuka clan about finding a way for Joseibi to deal with her curse form. It was an asset to stealth, but given how hard it was to turn back human, she needed to have a way to defend herself in that form.

Now all that was needed was to make a decision where to attach Ryoko.

****

"We have thirty new genin," Hokage noted. "In addition to Ryoko."

"That's ten teams plus one spare," Iruka noted.

"Some things are clear," Sarutobi noted. "Kurenai has history with the young Hyuuga, and it makes sense to place her as Hinata's sensei for that reason. Likewise with Asuma and Shikamaru. And, of course, the young Uchiha."

"Yeah," Kakashi said from where he was reading his book. "We'll see how he does."

Iruka frowned as he considered the jonin's statement. He'd heard rumors about the past times Kakashi was called on to take a genin team. Come to think of it, he didn't think he'd heard of the jonin working with genin that hadn't been a ninja for less than three years.

"We also need to place Naruto," the Hokage said.

"We should put him with Sasuke," Kakashi noted, a bit in disbelief that he was suggesting this. "It will attract less attention."

"But it is traditional to team the strongest and weakest students together," another jonin protested. "Before the Mizuki situation, I'd have said that Naruto was the weakest, but there can be no doubt that he has extreme potential of his own."

"How can we be certain he didn't use the Kyuubi's power to beat Mizuki," another asked.

"Iruka was there to witness it," the Hokage said. "The demon chakra made no appearance."

"Then shouldn't Naruto be the anchor of another team?" someone asked.

"Naruto is not prepared to be an anchor of any team yet," Ibiki noted. "And Kakashi is right that placing Naruto in a team other than with Sasuke would attract attention. Naruto's grades are a matter of public record, easily obtained by other villages. The Mizuki situation is not something so easily obtained. We don't want word getting out that we broke our own tradition this way. It would bring eyes to Naruto that we don't want looking."

There were internal reasons as well, but Ibiki had already expressed those concerns to the Hokage. The Foundation was supposedly disbanded, but the individuals that made it up were still around, and they'd look for any sort of lever they could use to get back to the ways they felt things should be. They'd know about the Mizuki situation, but the majority of the public citizens wouldn't.

That left the third spot to fill on Team Kakashi.

"How about Haruna?" Kurenai asked, finally drawing some sort of interest from Kakashi.

"The potential is there," Kakashi said. "But not the drive yet. If I have to have those two on a team, I'd prefer a third member that keeps the same sort of pace. I'm already going to have to work at moderating the academic pace as it is."

The Hokage smiled.

"I think we know who might fill that bill," the Hokage said.

Kakashi blinked and looked up again from his book before sighing expressively.

****

Sasuke looked irritably toward the black-haired martial artist who saw in one of the chairs of the room, somewhat far away from him, he'd noticed. That was fine with him, she could stay curious and moon-eyed over there then. Meanwhile Naruto was pacing about a bit and grumbling about how late their jonin was.

Personally, Sasuke was more interested in why a skittish girl with no forehead-protector was doing assigned to his team. The only time he'd seen the girl was when she came to pick up her younger sister.

He'd heard rumors, of course, about how Naruto had been challenging her off and on since she got to the village two years back, but the fact that she always won didn't particularly impress Sasuke.

Most people could beat Naruto in a fight.

Which brought up yesterday's…situation.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he looked to the blonde, hyperactive ninja. He didn't know for what purpose Naruto had impersonated him, but it didn't really matter. The "dead last" ninja had defeated him quite easily. To make matters worse, the rumors he'd heard was that Naruto had tried something, but been easily rebuffed and Naruto wasn't saying anything to the contrary.

To be defeated was one thing, but this was verging on condescension.

Either that, or Naruto had simply forgotten the whole affair. That was a possibility that wasn't all that unbelievable.

In any case, he'd show the fool that Sasuke Uchiha was not someone to be taken so lightly.

"Ano…" Ryoko said quietly as Naruto brought a chair over and used it to climb up and place an eraser inbetween the door and the frame. "Sh…should you be doing that?"

"His fault for being late," Naruto said.

"Like a jonin would fall for a trap like that," Sasuke said grumpily.

Not much longer after he'd said that, the three heard the sound of footsteps and the door slid open to drop the eraser on Kakashi's head.

"Got him!" Naruto declared loudly.

"Ano…" Ryoko responded.

Sasuke remained quietly disbelieving that a jonin could be so foolish.

Kakashi, meanwhile, looked about the room, judging what he saw. As expected, Naruto had gotten up to some mischief and didn't even realize that it was bad, Ryoko was still uncertain about just what to do or say and Sasuke was watching arrogantly from on high without getting involved.

This would take a lot of work to mould these three into a team.

A few minutes later found them on top of the Academy, with Kakashi speaking to them.

"All right," he said. "Let's start by introducing yourselves."

"Introducing ourselves?" Naruto asked. "How do we do that?"

"As in give you name…" Kakashi thought a bit more "…likes, dislikes, future dream and hobbies…stuff like that."

That sounded authentic enough.

"Well, why don't you start then?" Naruto demanded.

"Me?" Kakashi said. "I'm Kakashi Hatake. I don't feel like telling you my likes and dislikes. I've never thought about a future dream and I have many hobbies. Now, Naruto?"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto declared. "I like ramen and especially Ichiraku ramen. I dislike that it takes three minutes to make instant ramen. My hobby is comparing types of ramen. My dream is to surpass the Hokage and to be acknowledged by everybody in the village."

"All right," Kakashi said, turning toward Ryoko. "And you?"

"Ano…" the girl said, rising to her feet, she bowed formally. "I am Ryoko Saotome of the Saotome School of Martial Arts. I..like martial arts movies and manga. I di…dislike behaving poorly and m..making mis…mistakes. My dream is for my sister to be happy. My hobby is training."

"What kind of dream is that?" Sasuke asked, despite his overall annoyance for the whole procedure.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, confused.

"Yeah, Ryoko-chan," Naruto said. "A dream is supposed to be about what you want to do, not other people."

"Oh," Ryoko said, blinking. "I see. Th…then I am to bear strong children with a m…manly man in or..order to make sure the S…saotome family continues."

"Well, that's…interesting," Kakashi said as he turned from Ryoko to look at the horrified Sasuke. "Sasuke."

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha," he said, staring at Ryoko. "I don't particularly like anything. I have lots of dislikes. I especially dislike clinging girls that are already planning marriage…"

"Oh, I could not marry you," Ryoko said. "You must tend to your own family name. A…at m..most I could be your m…mistress."

Besides, the boy made her very uncomfortable with the way he was glowering and how heavy the chi around him was.

Kakashi hadn't thought Sasuke's expression could get more horrified until Ryoko said that.

"That way we b..both k..keep our family names," she explained.

"What's she talking about?" Naruto asked, feeling it was vaguely perverted somehow but he wasn't sure.

"Anyway," Kakashi said, setting aside the concept of why a twelve year old girl had thought such things through so thoroughly. "Your dreams and hobbies, Sasuke?"

"Uh…uh…" Sasuke said, trying to pry his eyes away from the disturbing figure of Ryoko.

Naruto leaned over toward Ryoko and started whispering.

"Ryoko-chan," he said. "Did you use some sort of jutsu on Sasuke-teme over there?"

"Ano…" Ryoko said, confused.


	5. Testing

Ryoko quietly sat seiza in the field, taking the place of the exercise she missed out on for missing Joseibi's morning training. Quietly, she was wondering if she should be included in such an exercise if she wasn't going to be a ninja, but then, it was more training, and training was always good.

Her instructor had said not to have breakfast, which meant that they were going to be working on an empty stomach. That sounded similar to a lot of her father's basic training ideas, and, having lived on the road for half a year, she knew that food wasn't always readily available when you were traveling.

That still left just what skills Hatake-sama would be testing them on. It seemed time appropriate for generic challenge of their overall skills. To see what each of them had accomplished in their time.

She did hope that she got to go first.

Challenges were so much better when they were unknown.

She would be able to deal with this easily.

Her stomach growled loudly, prompting Ryoko to nervously bite her own lip.

Sasuke and Naruto didn't arrive much later than her.

"Ohayo," Ryoko called out waving cheerfully as the two moved over to them.

She stood up and bowed as they moved over to her, Naruto looking like he hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before.

"Hatake-sama is not yet here," Ryoko said.

Sasuke nodded with a brief snort as he moved to stand in the center of the field.

"Probably going to be late," Naruto muttered as he sat down and promptly fell asleep.

Ryoko blinked and looked to her two teammates in confusion as they more or less ignored her. Well, not so much ignored in Naruto's case, as it was just fell unconscious, but Sasuke was definitely ignoring her.

"Ano…" she said.

As soon as it became apparent that Naruto wasn't about to wake up and Sasuke would go on ignoring her, Ryoko sat back down, looking moderately nervous and disturbed about something. That, however, was her normal expression so it was hardly noteworthy.

Ryoko sat down with Naruto between her and Sasuke, whom she occasionally glanced at cautiously. Sasuke himself tried not to notice what he was mistakenly identifying as the amorous glances of yet another fangirl.

A particularly disturbing fangirl at that.

****

Sakura paused on her way to her own first day exercise when she saw Team 7 sitting quietly together in the field. Instantly she was flat on the ground and staring down at the scaredy cat casting sly glances at her Sasuke.

Bitterly, Sakura remembered what she had overheard yesterday at the first meeting of Team 7.

"'Oh, I could not marry you,'" Sakura whispered mockingly. ""A…at m…most I could be your m…mistress.' What an act. No way I'm letting Ino beat me out, much less some outsider scaredy cat."

Inner Sakura had a slightly less civil response to the Saotome Girl's previous comments.

"Get the little hussy!!" the inner Sakura declared. "Chandarro!"

"Ah, Sakura-chan," a calm voice asked from behind her said. "You weren't planning to be late this morning, were you? I think your own team has to pass their test, don't they?"

She turned around to see Kakashi Hatake crouching over her, his one visible eye giving the impression of a friendly smile.

"No, sensei," she said nervously as she stood up from her reconnaissance and quietly shuffled away.

Kakashi sighed as he watched her go off.

He had to admit, he'd underestimated her drive in at least one regard: her interest in Sasuke Uchiha.

If her team didn't pass their test and give her something to do with her time, she was going to be trouble.

****

It was some time later, exactly how long none of them knew quite for sure but Naruto was awake by that time, that Kakashi finally appeared. The blonde shinobi snapped to standing as the masked ninja greeted them and shouted out.

"You're late!"

"Yes, well, you see there was this black cat that crossed my path…" Kakashi started to say.

"Excuses?" Sasuke muttered, in his own thoughts he added "Is this guy really a jonin?"

What followed was an explanation of the exercise before them that Ryoko rapidly analyzing the challenge before her as Kakashi watched. She was biting her lip and squinting her eyes nervously.

If she took one of bells, then either Sasuke or Naruto would be failed, which wasn't fair because she wasn't even a ninja. But if she let one of them get the bells and failed to do so herself, that would mean she'd lost.

A Saotome didn't lose.

And, of course, underneath the façade of nervousness, the eagerness to engage in battle glittered behind her eyes.

Kakashi watched those thought processes and recognized them.

The path of the wandering martial artist was a truly lonely one, and all three of his students seemed to follow that path more than they did the path of the ninja at the moment. They'd been taught betrayal, ostracism and conflict and to rely only on themselves, for the most part.

One focused on vengeance.

One focused on acknowledgement.

One focused on other people's desires.

Kakashi was faced with the amusing fact that the most emotionally balanced and well-developed the three was actually the jinchuriki. If they passed his test, he'd have to depend on Naruto to work on uniting and hopefully healing the other two.

In any case, it was time to start testing them.

A comment about losers set Naruto off as expected, and then, suddenly, the jonin was among the three, with his hand around Naruto's and the young ninja's kunai pointed toward the back of his neck.

"Hey now, I didn't say start yet," Kakashi said as he noted Ryoko quietly set aside her bokken. "But at least you came at me with killer intent, I'll give you that."

****

At the start of the test, Kakashi looked around from his position in the open field to take into account where the three had started themselves. He'd had to make it clear to Ryoko that this scenario was to be started from hiding.

She had frowned, obviously not particularly liking attacking from ambush. But she'd hidden surprisingly well given her background. He wasn't entirely sure where exactly she was. It spoke oddly of her style, since she'd plainly been trained in stealth of a kind.

Sasuke, of course, was equally well hidden as Ryoko was. That was too be expected from the Uchiha genius, of course. He'd trained heavily in every of the shinobi's basic skills since even before his brother's actions. Afterward, that training had become obsessive.

No, what brought the sigh from Kakashi's mouth was that Naruto was standing out in the open talking about fighting fair.

Ryoko watched from her hiding spot as first Naruto and then Sasuke gave their best efforts to take the bells and failed. With each of them recovering from their first attempts, the martial artist made her play.

"Ryoko-chan," Kakashi said, as he stood up from where Sasuke was buried from the neck down. "When are you going to come out here?"

"Ano…" Ryoko said, stepping out and bowing nervously. "Sumimasen, Hatake-sama."

"You know," Kakashi said. "You have a time limit, and you have to get these bells from me. Your tactic doesn't work in the scenario."

"H…hai, Hatake-sama," Ryoko said, biting her lip and driving forward.

Kakashi let her come, resisting the urge to activate his sharingan to see just what she was doing.

Her initial strike was a leaping axe-kick which Kakashi dodged easily enough. After that, she drove the fight in close, pressing in at grappling range with short, swift punches and kicks aimed below the knee. Her skill was good, up to par with Sasuke's earlier, but the Uchiha had already put him on warning and he knew that when it came to taijutsu, Ryoko was the strongest of the three.

Or at least he had thought so, but the skills she was showing right now weren't what he expected of her, even with the fact that she was aiming for the bells mostly rather than attacking him directly much of the time.

A bit disappointed, Kakashi shifted aside at just the right moment and broke the contact from grappling to boxing distance. For just an instant he relaxed as he came out of what was obviously the girl's favored range and instantly recognized the trap.

The foot that clipped his jaw couldn't have been aimed by sight, but only by prediction. In boxing range, she was pressing him unmercifully, forcing him to step up the pace past what he had against Sasuke. Combos flowed into combos and kept Kakashi off his feet.

He stepped back and Ryoko dived forward and to the side, seeking to cut around him, leg chambering for a kick. His arm rose to ready a block and partially obscured his sight, so that he almost missed the feint for what it was. The leg motion wasn't a chambering kick, but a swift push against the ground to dive around Kakashi's opposite flank, using the older man's own blocking arm to conceal the motion.

Had he had slower reflexes and eyes, he'd have followed a mental phantasm, a projection of what his brain had determined should have been Ryoko's path. It was a clever move, but he'd seen through it, and it was defeated as he rolled into her true path, forcing her into grappling distance again.

Sasuke, stuck in the ground, watched in sheer shock as the girl he'd been dismissing pressed the man that had so thoroughly defeated him.

Even now, he watched as the girl took what should have been a vicious throw and turned it against the jonin into a painful looking slam into the ground.

And puff into smoke.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, blinking and looking about in confusion.

She'd been about to win, she was sure of it. Then again, she'd gotten the feeling that the man had been holding back against her. Now she wasn't so sure, and the trace of annoyance at not being taken seriously faded away.

"Ryoko-chan," Kakashi called out from where he'd perched on a nearby tree. "Up here."

The black-haired girl looked up and caught the man's hand signs just moments before the leaves swirled around her.

Under normal circumstances, Kakashi would have used a fear-inducing genjutsu to make the target faint. In Ryoko's case, her…condition meant that she would likely almost instantly break the genjutsu as well as becoming more dangerous.

As such, he had other images in mind.

Sasuke watched with arched eyebrows as the Saotome girl cheerfully muttered to herself.

He couldn't hear much of what she was saying, only fragments of it seemed to be working out, but had he been able to hear her thoughts as well as the mumbled words, it might have been something like this:

"Mother, I have found instructors to teach me the sword!" she declared. "Oh, no, I have not yet found husband, but there are many potential manly men here. And Joseibi-chan is doing so well! She is at the ninja academy. WAI! I knew you'd appreciate Imouto-chan eventually, mother! Why certainly we don't need the family wakizashi any more. Oh this is a great day."

Kakashi smirked from his position only moments before leaving to go attend to a certain ninja that was breaking probably breaking the rules just now.

Ten minutes later, Sasuke had successfully managed to dig himself out and charged ahead to make a last ditch effort to take the bells, leaving Ryoko to slowly come out of her illusion as the slow flow of chi washed it away.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, looking around and wondering where everything and everybody had gone.

Then the alarm rang sounding noon.

****

"Ryoko's lack of understanding of this task is expected," Kakashi said, he noted the girl in question bite deeper into her lip as he said that. "She was not raised in Konoha, but I expected better of the two of you."

"But the whole thing is stupid," Naruto protested. "What are we supposed to learn from trying to grab a couple of stupid bells from someone like you."

From his position under Kakashi's foot, Sasuke could do little more than grunt.

"Are you guys brainless?" Kakashi asked. "What's the point of three man teams?"

Struggling from where he was tied up, Naruto practically growled.

"What do three man teams have to do with anything?" he demanded.

"Simply put," Kakashi said. "Teamwork."

"Ano…" Ryoko said. The girl opened her mouth to say more, but stopped uncertain of what to say.

"Go on, Ryoko," Kakashi said firmly. "What were you going to say."

"Tr…training partners make y…you strong," Ryoko said. "But ev…eventually a ri…rival must be defeated or must de..defeat you."

Naruto blinked and looked to the black-haired girl as she spoke of that particularly cold philosophy of cooperation. Did she really believe that was the extent that people could relate to each other?

"That's the view of a martial artist, no not a martial artist, a mere figter who sees only the next challenge," Kakashi told her flatly. He turned toward the other two young fighters. "Or someone who thinks only of his own goals. Your team members are not mere rivals or training partners. They are your comrades. This exercise is meant to find those who are able to understand that distinction and weed out those who aren't. Acting alone and as an individual does nothing but bring the team to crisis and destruction."

He drew a kunai and quickly had it out at Sasuke's throat.

"Ryoko! If you don't kill Naruto, I'll kill Sasuke," Kakashi declared roughly, before removing his knife a full second later and continuing in a more normal tone. "Is what would happen. The enemy now has a hostage and you're presented with two unacceptable results. Meanwhile, if you had worked together, you could probably have taken the bells."

He stood up and let Sasuke up from the dirt, the young Uchiha grudgingly rubbing at his shoulder.

"But…why only t…two bells?" Ryoko asked. "Wh…why n..not one or three?"

"To cloud the issue," Sasuke said grimly. "Make us think of our own goals instead of the team's objective."

Ryoko slumped. She really wasn't suited to this sort of thing it seemed.

"Well," Kakashi said. "You'll have one more chance to get the bells, but first, let's have lunch. However, no one let Naruto eat anything. His punishment for breaking the rules. If anybody let's Naruto eat, they'll be disqualified instantly. I make the rules here, understand?"

The three nodded and then Kakashi vanished.

"We're going to get those bells this time," Naruto said some minutes later, laughing as he ignored the fact that he was still tied up and hadn't eaten yet.

Sasuke turned as the sound of Naruto's growling stomach put a lie to his boasting. He started to offer his bento.

"No, h…he can have mine," Ryoko said quietly.

"What?" Naruto said surprised. "No. You'll be disqualified, you'll have to…"

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "I…I am n…not a ninja in th..the first place."

"But," Naruto started to protest.

"Quiet, if all of us aren't at our full strength, we'll have trouble getting those bells," Sasuke said. "We'll need to share all our bentos across."

"I…I am fine," Ryoko said. She knew from experience that she wasn't near the point that she'd have to start sacrificing performance yet.

"But…" Naruto started to protest before he found a ball of rice in his mouth.

And that was when the world started to go crazy.

****

Kakashi looked back over his shoulder briefly as they got some distance away from the poles they'd left Naruto tied to, at Ryoko's protests. The girl had started to untie him, so the ropes were weakened. Naruto had had ten minutes to work at the ropes.

Now was probably a good time.

"Ryoko-chan," Kakashi said, calling the girl to come back.

"Hai, Hatake-sama?" she said nervously, pausing.

"I need to talk to you for a moment," Kakashi said, he glanced ahead toward Sasuke. "All right, Sasuke, go on ahead, we'll catch up."

Sasuke looked back over his shoulder and frowned as the girl was pulled aside.

He pretended disdain for a moment and continued down the path toward town until he was out of sight and could come back to see what Kakashi wanted to pull the girl aside for.

Ryoko meanwhile waited politely, in a proper posture, biting her lip and waiting for Kakashi to talk.

The masked ninja looked around a bit and then nodded.

"Ryoko-chan," he said. "Don't be too eager to fall on your sword."

"Ano…"

"Sometimes," Kakashi said. "You'll have to risk yourself for your comrades. Sometimes you might even have to sacrifice yourself. But you make the choice too easy."

"But…if I..I…" she started to say.

"If you were on a mission and Naruto or Sasuke were hurt," Kakashi said. "You'd feel guilty?"

"I…I am th…there to help protect th..the team," Ryoko confirmed quietly.

"And if you were hurt, how do you think they should feel?" Kakashi asked.

"I do n…not think such would matter," Ryoko said. "I am…not im…important."

Kakashi sighed for a moment, deciding not to press further on this issue for now.

"And who would take care of your team next time?" Kakashi asked. "Or your sister?"

Kakashi was rewarded by that last comment with a flash of orange fire that rose and died briefly.

"Injuries happen," Kakashi continued. "But don't make them part of the plan if you can avoid it, understood?"

"H..hai, Hatake-sama," Ryoko said.

"And for goodness sake, stop calling me Hatake-sama," Kakashi said, groaning. "You make me feel like some sort of old man."

"Ano…?"

"Why not just call me Kakashi-sensei and leave it at that?" the jonin asked.

"If you…wish, Kakashi-sensei," Ryoko responded. The look on her face as she said the new appellation was almost pained.

Sasuke watched as Kakashi looked up away from Ryoko towards two seemingly random points and, with a flinch, he noticed Naruto hiding at the other of the two. Obviously their sensei had intended, or at least allowed, them to hear that.

It made some sense.

Sasuke was aware of Naruto's orphaned background, similar to his own in some less painful ways. Likewise, Naruto was aware that Sasuke had grown up alone for the past few years as well. Both knew each other's personalities at least on a glance, but Sasuke had never really paid attention to this outsider before save to note she was always jumping at her own shadow.

Grimacing, he realized that he was going to be expected to get to know his teammates as more than just teammates. As comrades, like Kakashi had said.

Snorting, Sasuke took off out of the trees even as he noted Naruto coming out of cover and moving quickly to join Kakashi and Ryoko. He could already hear Naruto bluntly vowing to make sure Ryoko never got hurt on a mission, as if he had that sort of ability.

****

Kakashi had left Ryoko and Naruto behind with the blonde exuberantly treating the young martial artist to "all that she could eat" at Ichiraku Ranma, and then unwisely turned the offer into an unofficial sort of eating competition. Kakashi had left while they were on something like their fourth bowl each.

At some point fairly soon, Naruto was going to hit the end of his pocket money.

Kakashi laughed as he imagined the kid's face as he started to realize that and walked into the Hokage's office.

"Oh, you have your first report already?" Sarutobi said as the ninja walked into the office and set a packet of papers down on his desk. "I had thought I'd have to remind you several times at least to get this in."

"Sometimes, I feel like shaking up the patterns," Kakashi said with a resigned sigh.

"Care to give me a summary?" the Hokage asked.

"As expected, individually, they're spectacular," Kakashi said. "Together they're a spectacular flop. Not so expectedly, they each have some basic understanding of teamwork."

"You passed them, then?" the Hokage said with a smirk as he brought his pipe down.

"They're the first to actually break the eating rule," Kakashi admitted. "Every other team had been thoroughly cowed by that point."

"Strengths and weaknesses?"

"Naruto is the least well developed, but has the most potential chakra-wise," Kakashi said. "And despite what you'd guess from his unoriginal pranks, he is actually cunning. It isn't developed yet, but he could be taught to be a very tactical thinker. Ryoko is pure fighting skill, very close to Rock Lee's level, but she's weak against genjutsu, you can piggy back it right in on her chi. A serious weakness even if she does naturally flush her own chakra eventually. Sasuke is the most well-rounded, but he's too sure of himself, and he thinks more directly and on fewer levels than either of the other two."

"I see," the Hokage noted.

"If we can work out the teamwork and the worst of their weaknesses," Kakashi said. "We'll have the makings of a functioning war-team very soon. Including Guy's team, that would bring us to two potential heavy-battle groups."

"I hope that doesn't become necessary," the Hokage said. "And I'd rather the term 'war-team' doesn't leave this room in reference to either team. The other villages might misunderstand the intent."

"Yes, who'd expect preparations of this sort for a mere group of missing-nins," Kakashi asked. "I assume you've heard from that man recently."

The Hokage said nothing, but the silence was almost as good as an answer.

"Well, in any case," Kakashi said. "We'll be babysitting and weeding gardens for a bit now. Nobody's going to think any serious attempt for those sorts of preparations would include D-Rank missions. One other question. What is the status on Sakura Haruno?"

"Her team didn't pass," Sarutobi said. "I'm moving her to the hospital to begin apprenticeship there."

Kakashi sighed, a bit relieved at that. That would keep her occupied and in the village and causing no more trouble for his team.

****

"So, maybe tomorrow Kakashi-sensei will start teaching us some super techniques," Naruto declared as he accepted another bowl from Ichiraku-san. "Or maybe we'll have our first mission."

Ryoko looked toward Naruto as she continued to eat her own bowl of ramen.

"I d..do..not…" she started to say more, but gave up as Naruto interrupted her. Instead she daintly worked on the food before her.

"I'll bet we'll be sent to go protect some important relic or something," Naruto said. He picked up his chopsticks and started to stick them into his mouth when he noted they were empty. "I could have sworn there was a pork slice there."

"Wou…"

"What else could they have totally badass ninja like u…" Naruto paused and then looked to Ryoko. "Well, like Sasuke and me and a martial artist like you."

"Do not most young shinobi perform D…"

"We're so B-Rank and better, believe it," Naruto declared. He looked down at his ramen bowl momentarily. "Ichiraku-san…have you started serving smaller portions?"

"No," the man behind the booth said. "I even gave you an extra sized portion knowing how much you eat."

Ryoko started again to hesitantly try and join into the one-sided conversation, but was stopped before she could say anything.

"Hmm," Naruto said. "Anyway, it shouldn't be long now before we're the most famous ninja…and martial artist…in Konoha."

"Do ninja want to be famous?" she asked quietly. "Don't…do not…do not!"

"Why do you do that?" Naruto asked.

"Do what?" Ryoko asked.

"Repeat yourself over and over like that," Nartuo asked.

"Ano…?"

Ryoko brought her chopsticks up to her mouth and swallowed nervously.

Naruto bent to his own bowl and blinked on noticing that he was all but finished, with only a bit of broth and noddles left.

"I really have to watch how I eat," he muttered, forgetting about Ryoko's speech patterns. "You eat a lot too, don't you."

"Wh…when I can," Ryoko said, calmly setting her chopsticks down after finishing her own eighth bowl. "M…my f..family has a…high metabolism. An…anyway, how do you…copy y..yourself like that?"

"Oh! The Kage Bunshin?" Naruto asked. "That's the coolest thing ever, believe it! I'll bet I can surpass you now."

"Is that a challenge?" Ryoko asked, looking toward him.

Naruto smirked back. Then he remembered what she'd said about fighting partners. He wanted to say something about it, but didn't quite have a firm handle on what exactly bothered him about it. There was something about her wording, "defeat" instead of "surpass".

"Sure, let's go back up and see who's surpassed who," Naruto said.

Ryoko smiled brightly, wondering how many Naruto's she could fight.

"WAI!" she declared happily.

From there it was only a brief detour to the academy to hear that Joseibi had gone on to the Inuzuka compound for help in dealing with her cursed form before they were heading back up to the training grounds.

****

Kurenai was leading her own team down from the training grounds when they saw Ryoko and Naruto heading back up.

"This time, I'm winning for sure, Ryoko-chan," Naruto declared proudly.

"M..maybe, Uzumaki-san," the younger girl responded.

"Ryoko-chan," Hinata called out, moving forward a bit and looking from Ryoko towards Naruto and back again, eyes still flickering to Naruto fairly regularly. "Did Naruto-kun challenge you again?"

"That's right, Hinata-chan," Naruto said. "I have a new technique that will definitely give me the edge this time."

Hinata looked back toward Kurenai, who was watching the interchange, and her new student's blush, with interest.

"Is it all right to watch their match, Sensei?" she asked quietly.

"I think that'll be a good idea, actually," Kurenai said. "Would you mind if we all watch?"

Ryoko bit her lip and looked toward Naruto and the other ninjas.

"Why not?" Naruto said.

"Are you serious?" Kiba demanded. "What do we get out of watching a wimp like Naruto get beat up by a little kid with a toy sword?"

"Ano?" Ryoko said, looking to her sword.

"I'll bet I…" Kiba started to say.

"Whoa!" Naruto said. "Before you finish that, I've already got a match here."

"What was I about to say?" Kiba asked, confused.

"Well, Naruto is fine with it," Kurenai said. "Ryoko?"

"I…I am fine with h..having witnesses, Yuhi-sama," Ryoko said.

Shino sighed quietly, agreeing with Kiba though he wasn't going to voice his comments in the same way. Watching this fight felt a lot like it would be a waste of time. Still, it would be good to see what his other comrades were capable of.

"Then let's go," Kurenai said with a slight smile.

Naruto and Ryoko were soon staring across from each other across one of the training fields as two bored genin, a very intent young kunoichi and a curious jonin watched on.

Kiba shook his head as he looked at Ryoko, holding her bokken like an umbrella and standing like a nervous hostess to some posh party or another. Naruto, meanwhile, was standing across from her, arms crossed and that normal insufferable grin on his face.

On the other hand, watching Naruto get beat up by a girl one year younger than the rest of them, that would be a golden opportunity. Sitting somewhat closer to the fight, he watched Hinata quietly trigger her byakugan to watch the coming fight.

"Ready, Ryoko-chan?" Naruto asked.

"H..hai, Uzumaki-san," Ryoko said, bowing.

"Then let's get started!" the smirking blonde declared. "Multi-Kage Bunshin!"

Kiba and Shino's interest turned somewhat higher as several more Narutos joined the field. Even more, it was quickly apparent that all of the clones had actual physical substance.

"The hell? They're real?" Kiba said, standing up as the small horde of identical genin charged for Ryoko, standing there as if frozen in shock.

Kurenai reached a hand up to stop Kiba from moving forward.

"But she's gonna get creamed," he said.

"Pay attention," Kurenai said.

Kiba was about to protest when a bark from Akamaru caught his attention.

"What, she's petrified, she's so scared," he said before testing the air himself and, catching Ryoko's scent was surprised to find no trace of the fear-indicative body chemicals that normally permeated the girl's smell.

In fact, he thought he smelled endorphins.

Naruto's first clone came in with a clear leaping kick that left him wide open. Ryoko flinched aside with a startled shriek that Kiba now suspected was not so honest as normal. In the same moment, her flailing bokken snapped that clone in the back of the head, sending it dispersing into a puff of smoke.

Ryoko followed through that strike to "accidentally" smack another clone, which had an amusedly shocked expression moments before bursting into smoke. The third clone dodged as stumbled toward it, her bokken slashing inches away from the clone's nervous glance.

The black-haired martial artist furrowed her brow in confusion as she leaped away as the bulk of the attack reached her position. They followed her into the air, which was just as well.

Her leap coming to a peak, she started to drift back down to earth as one of the Naruto's reached her and kicked out. Ryoko's hand intercepted the kick, and in a moment she'd transferred both the dying momentum from that clone's leap and the force from its kick to impart another burst of aerial motion for her as the clone flopped toward the earth, lacking any inertia aside from gravity.

That clone burst into smoke as she used the stolen momentum to continue her leap further away from the opening into the trees which would split her opponent up into smaller groups.

Kurenai and the rest of Team 8 moved around, closer to the trees to try to keep track of the fight.

It wasn't long before the first group of clones found Ryoko behind a tree. She leaped only short moments before her position was covered in Narutos. She held off on squealing or asking for an apology, Naruto hadn't recently shown much response to constant use of the Haoto no Suzumebachi.

She'd started to use it sparingly against him.

In any case, the small group of Narutos already near her, followed her up into the air. Soon thereafter they were slamming into trunks around her as she through herself into the upper branches of the trees before anymore of Naruto's bodies could reach the sound of the fight.

When the leaves around her started exploding in Narutos before she saw even one at the scene of the fight below her, she let herself drop from her perch instead of counterattack. Giving herself time to figure out how Naruto had found her so quickly.

The first three clones that landed with her were dispersed as she pulled her bokken to her back and out of her way. The next wave forced her to focus entirely on the defensive as they pushed her back. As the flows of chi swirled about her, she could tell they were driving her into a trap of some sort.

Naruto smirked as the rest of the clones circled around behind Ryoko as he and the majority of his remaining clones pushed her backwards. Simply swarming Mizuki had been plenty, but it hadn't worked against Kakashi at all. Since he'd shown Ryoko the technique at the test this morning, he knew she'd have been ready for it.

It was just like when he would get chased around for one of his pranks. Eventually, they always got him somewhere he couldn't evade them.

Then Ryoko tripped ahead of him, falling backward, arms flailing forward. Naruto and the clones right in the path to overrun and trample Ryoko tried to halt their advance. Balance destroyed by the attempted halt, none of them were prepared when Ryoko's fall flowed seamlessly into a roll as her feet lashed outward, catching one of the Narutos solidly in the chest and flipping him over her.

That left Ryoko to come to her feet in the midst of several Narutos suffering a much less controlled loss of balance. The girl's bokken flashed one direction as she kicked in the other. Two clones dispersed as the Naruto she'd carried over her started to stand up and shake his head.

The Saotome moved forward to try to take out the main body, hoping it would disperse the remaining clones. She found herself intercepted by the small group of clones that Naruto had been trying to flank her with.

She quickly forced the direction of her chi downward into the earth and let it rebound against the force of the chi rising from the Earth. Rocketing upwards, she caught hold of one of the nearest tree to swing herself around and away from the fight.

Two of the remaining eight Narutos followed her, remembering what past attempts to engage the Saotome in the air had resulted in, but unwilling to lose her. The first of the scouts landed on a tree branch near the point Ryoko had twisted around the branch and followed headfirst into a bokken and dispersing.

The next tried to disarm her of her weapon, but made a slight error that left him focused too long on the attempt and open to a snap kick to the back of the head.

Ryoko leaped away, leaving the trees and back into clear view of the spectators, landing amidst a small ring of boulders that she could use to continue and split Naruto's advantage of numbers up.

The first clone ducked under her sword and performed a successful disarm, pointedly correcting the error that the earlier clone had made. An error that none of the current clones could have been present to see. Just like her hiding position was revealed without almost any trouble.

A suspicion was starting to form in the girl's mind and she started to test it.

Shino narrowed his eyes as he watched Ryoko slip into what were closer to rigid katas than fighting moves.

It opened her up in several places, and he wondered why she'd make such a decision after showing that she obviously knew how to fight. A Naruto, Shino couldn't tell if it was a clone or not, landed a blow through her less flexible defenses and was summarily dispersed as Ryoko turned to face one she could both hear and feel coming around a rock behind her.

Shino watched as the new clone, which had been out of visual range, responded to Ryoko the same way, striking the same opening, but narrowly avoiding being dispersed by the Saotome girl's first counter. Another clone was moving in behind her as she followed up the first counter with a third and the clone she was facing dispersed.

A swift side-step let the clone behind her past with an over-enthusiastic attack as she concentrated on finding a clone that hadn't been around to witness her exchange with the other two.

The insect-wrangler's eyes widened as he realized what Ryoko was testing.

Naruto was keeping the memory of every clone that was dispersed. Every time Ryoko completed the same technique against a clone, the next clone was better prepared for it.

Ryoko was moving around a rock, so Shino couldn't see the next exchange, but, judging from the burst of smoke, she'd tried out her theory again. The girl was soon back in Shino's sight however as she rolled over the boulder pursued by what looked like a renewed grouping of Naruto's clones.

A nod from the black-haired girl as she came to her feet, in the middle of the boulders again, and she slipped again into the more fluid mode of motion that came in battle rather than training.

Before, she'd still had a trend of using proven motions, instead, she simply followed the flow of chi shifting from her to the Narutos and back.

In essence, she stopped being sophisticated and moved simply into the basics.

There was a problem inherent in this too, however, as every one of the clones watched her motions and several suffered them. With each clone she dispersed, Naruto and the remaining clones were getting better as those observations spread through the remainder.

Observations that were being applied to what Naruto was weakest at, the basics.

It was only fractional, however. Probably Naruto himself wasn't even aware of it since the memories he was getting were only seconds or fractions of seconds in duration. However, those slow, fractional increases were being magnified by the numbers that Naruto was attacking her with.

She had to end the match soon. If she kept on the defensive as normal, she'd lose as the fight dragged onward.

Kurenai nodded as Ryoko shifted from her defensive stance into an offensive one, a change in attitude that noted the complete disappearance of her flinches and apologies as she simply started blowing through Naruto clones with a frightening ease until she was finally standing over Naruto, trying to catch her breath.

Slowly as Naruto came to, he looked up.

"Ah, man, I almost had you that time," he groaned.

"Y…you are getting stronger ve..very fast, Uzumaki-san," Ryoko said quietly as she stood up straight and then bowed to him with a quiet smile.

Quicker than she had these past two years.

She could self-train, but she still couldn't improve as quickly as she had with her father to run her training.

"Yeah," Naruto said. "And when I finally win, it'll be your turn to catch up with me."

Ryoko blinked at that.

"That was an excellent display," Kurenai said, nodding. "And I hope it gives my students a lesson of their own."

"How did you get skills like that?" Kiba asked, coming forward to look at both Naruto and Ryoko.

Shino remained back and thoughtfully went over what he'd seen, and forcing himself to admit that he'd underestimated both fighters.

Kurenai nodded to herself as processed the fight herself, hoping Kakashi wouldn't consider this stepping on his toes. Looking to Kiba and Shino, however, she realized the more important reason for having her team witness this fight had been taken in.

A reconnaissance team could never afford to underestimate anything. Hopefully they were coming to that conclusion even now.

"That was a very good match, Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly, look lingering on Naruto until she turned to look toward Ryoko for a moment. "Oh, and Ryoko-chan."

Ryoko looked from Hinata to Naruto and back, noting Hinata's demeanor and flushed face. She remembered some instructions and discussions with her mother regarding men and woman, and this situation seemed to bare some similarity to some of her mother's scenarios.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, raising a hand toward Hinata.

"Okay," Kurenai declared, interrupting Ryoko before she could follow up on the guesses that were starting to move through her mind. "It's starting to get late in the day, and I bet your team has its first mission tomorrow just like mine. So let's get heading back toward home."

"Oh, I need to go to the home of Inuzuka-san," Ryoko said then, forgetting her guesses about Hinata's interests. "My sister is receiving some extra training from his family."

"Oh, the fox-kid is your sister?" Kiba said. "Has anyone told you she's annoying?"

Ryoko sighed.

"Imouto-chan," the girl said under her breath.

"Maybe next time," Shino noted. "Kiba can try his challenge to Ryoko?"

"Inuzuka-san challenged me?" Ryoko asked eagerly as Kiba froze and his eyes twitched.

"Uh, well, I started…" Kiba said, sweating nervously. "I think I'll have to get some extra training in first, though."

He wanted to know how to use the fang over fang technique before he tried to fight this girl.

"Oh.." Ryoko said, sounding disappointed. "I…I ap..apologize. I di..did not mean to press."


	6. Mission

The moon rose towards its peak as two young men watched a fog start to roll in between the trees north of their village. Quickly, the air before them was filled with the growing mist, forming a thick, moving wall that approached them inch by inch.

"There it is, the cursed mist," one of them said. "The witch is coming back, get ready."

"Okay, we're going to free everybody she's taken," the other said.

Slowly, the wall of mist rose higher and started to thin, revealing, not the familiar sight of towering trees, but a wooden house standing in the bottom of a misty valley.

In front of the house a woman in dark robes seemed to be dancing through a series of slow steps without paying attention to anything else around her.

"There she is! Get her now before she finishes her curse," one of the two young men declared as he charged forward into the phantom terrain.

Moments later the sound of frustrated screaming rang through the forests and the mists vanished all in an instant, leaving behind only one of the two young men behind.

Only a few miles distant, in a shrine at the nearby village. A woman with bright orange hair breathed out a relieved sigh as her hands relaxed at her side.

****

"I'm in position at the target area," Sasuke said quietly into his radio.

"Same here," Naruto said.

"Is our tracker sure that this is the right place?" Kakashi asked.

"H…hai," Ryoko said. "Imouto-chan s…says th…the target has not left this area…W..well, she did not really say…but…"

"We get the picture," Sasuke noted.

"I'm moving in," Naruto said.

"That's good," Kakashi said. "Sasuke, move in to flank. Ryoko follow the tracker in and keep her protected. The target is vicious when cornered so be careful."

"H…hai," Ryoko said. "Let us go, Imouto-chan."

At her feet a yellow-furred fox was futilely attempting to scratch at her ears with her forepaws. Two years as a part time fox and Joseibi still refused to use her rear legs to scratch herself most of the time.

The fox yawned and then started to meander forward, sniffing around at the ground with a bored expression as Ryoko followed along behind her.

Joseibi yipped and whuffed as she moved along pointing in one direction or another with her forepaws and sounding a little bit bored.

Right up until the streak of furry fury launched itself out of the most recent bush pointed at by the yellow fox, who yipped in nervous surprise while back-pedaling. Ryoko moved herself in front of Joseibi and reached down to intercept the streak, which moved to climb up her outstretched arms.

"AIIAAH!!" Ryoko shouted as the small furry critter scratched up her body, until it leaped off and away, leaving the martial artist to fall to her knees with a sigh of relief.

Naruto and Sasuke were quickly on scene and had the ferocious animal under control.

Normally, Ryoko thought cats were incredibly cute things. Of course, she had no idea that they had long been considered the bane of her family's existence.

"Well," Kakashi said as he came on the site and watched the chaos.

Ryoko was in a state of unusual disarray trying to put her semi-shredded travelling kimono back into one piece while biting her lip and looking on the verge of tears. Naruto was still wrestling and seemingly losing, he already had more scratches than the Saotome girl, but didn't look like he was about to give up. Sasuke had a disdainful look as he took in his comrades and compared their state to the mission they had just been on. Joseibi in fox-form seemed to be trying to give Tora a stink eye.

Ah, it brought back so many memories.

****

"I see you brought back Tora," Sarutobi said to Kakashi as the two looked to where the feline was being tor…lovingly welcomed by his owner, the wife of the Fire Lord. "Where's your team?"

"They're taking Ryoko's sister back to the Academy," Kakashi said. "I'd say this was good practice for protecting an expert in the field."

"Or a way to turn a full-day goose-hunt into a much shorter task," Sarutobi asked.

"I don't know about that," Kakashi said. "With all the paperwork involved in borrowing an academy student, I'd say it took a little bit longer."

"More time is not more work," Sarutobi said with a smirk. "In any case, when you're team gets here, we can talk more about the next mission we assign you."

"Naruto is getting antsy, just to warn you," Kakashi said. "It might be time to try them out on a Class C mission soon."

"Too bad you weren't here earlier," Sarutobi said. "We had a decent Class-C mission until about ten minutes ago."

"Oh well," Kakashi said. "Another few days of weeding gardens and patching up roofs won't be so bad until the next one."

****

As predicted, Naruto was fit to just about burst out of his own chest as they received a mission to shelve books in the village library the next day. Only the promise of some training the next day had kept him from causing more than a minor stress headache to the various officials that dealt with assigning missions under the Hokage.

Now, the three followed along behind him after finishing the work at the library in short order.

Clones were useful that way.

"Now, for today," Kakashi said as started to reach the trees. "We'll be working on chakra control."

Ryoko blinked as Kakashi said that and slowly started to raise her hand.

"Yes, Ryoko," Kakashi said, "That includes you."

"Ano…?" Ryoko responded thoroughly confused.

"Though you're going to have…different exercises than these two," Kakashi said, indicating Sasuke and Naruto.

"And what will we be doing?" Sasuke asked.

"Tree-climbing," Kakashi said.

Ryoko sat and listened quietly as Sasuke and Naruto started off protesting and then watched in a bit of amazement as Kakashi walked up the side of a tree as easily as if he were walking down the street. She only wished her chi senses were attuned enough to actually see what the flows looked like around the ninja.

Her father had said that with proper mastery over chi, you could do practically anything. The old panda, had she actually thought of him like that…?

In any case, her father had told stories about even seeing people fly with proper chi-mastery. It should have been likewise possible to do what this ninja was doing.

Unfortunately, she could only feel chi, not really see it yet. She certainly couldn't see what the chi looked like around the ninja. Even then, it was likely that looking at the chi wouldn't have told her anything useful since the man was using his chakra rather than molding and moving with the world's chi.

Listening to his explanation of what to do sounded familiar, however, in ways.

In any case, she was going to have her own exercises to do.

"Now," Kakashi said, walking over to Ryoko and pulling out some scrolls. "I think you might be familiar with these, assuming you take any interest in your sister's activities."

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "Wh...why am I to learn how to use chakra? Strong chakra makes chi clumsy."

"You already have strong chakra," Kakashi said. "I can't judge your chi-control, can you?"

"Fa…father say…said I was clumsy," Ryoko admitted hesitantly.

"I suspect," Kakashi said, "Your limits of control will be based on how will you can control both energies. You currently have no control over your chakra, so your chi control is heavily limited, because the chakra gets in the way."

"Ano…" Ryoko said, not sure that that was necessarily true.

Of course, her lack of understanding of her own chakra meant she was unaware of how it acted during her fits and what effect that had on her chi.

"Now, I think you might find some of these exercises familiar," Kakashi said. "Depending on how much interest you take in your sister's school life."

Naruto came down from his sixth attempt and watched as Sasuke climbed up the tree at a near run. He growled to himself and prepared to give the exercise another shot. Glancing back, however, made him pause.

The blonde, hyperactive ninja wasn't alone in being distracted as Sasuke ended up following Naruto's look to see what Ryoko was doing with Kakashi.

"Aren't those…" Naruto started to ask.

"First year exercises," Sasuke confirmed as Ryoko sat and worked through the hand signs slowly.

She'd actually blurred through them earlier, but had been quickly lectured about the differences of holding ones fingers in certain positions and in actually focusing how that position altered the chakra.

"If she can't even use her own chakra yet," Sasuke said. "How is she so strong?"

"She told me once that she uses something called chi," Naruto said.

"Chi?" Sasuke said with a curious frown.

"Yeah, something about using the power of the world," the blonde ninja said shrugging.

"I've heard of it," Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes before turning back toward his own exercise.

Not one to let Sasuke get ahead of him, Naruto turned back as well and was soon slamming hard on the ground.

****

Sakura could hardly contain her laughter as she passed the training grounds and saw her newest apparent competition sitting in the training ground performing what were, for someone her age, remedial exercises in chakra control.

Then she paused and thought that through.

Why would the village put someone in the teams that hadn't been through the academy and, apparently, didn't even have the basic concepts of how to find and control chakra. There had to be more to this than she was seeing.

Anyway, she was supposed to be practicing that "tree-climbing" technique the medical ninjas instructing her had talked about. Something about sharpening her chi control. There was this technique and one other that she had practice before they'd start working her on chakra-related medical techniques.

Until then, she was learning basic first aid, acupuncture, anatomy. Stuff that didn't require the fine control of chakra required by most medical jutsu.

She looked around the training field and noticed that one-eyed jonin sitting there reading an orange book and frowned. Hopefully, if she went down there to practice this technique, then he wouldn't be concerned with her presence.

Then maybe she could figure out about the Saotome scardey cat and get close to Sasuke at the same time.

Smiling at her own cleverness, she started down toward the training field, under the frustrated and watchful glare of that one-eyed jonin.

The man set down his novel and gestured for Sakura to come over to where he sat. Nervously fearing that she might be getting sent away in the next couple of moments, she hesitantly moved to stand in front of the man.

"Aren't you supposed to be at one of the hospitals?" Kakashi asked softly.

"I've got an assignment to practice tree-climbing," Sakura said.

Kakashi nodded and looked around, noticing that the pink-haired girl's presence was starting to attract the attention of his genin. However, he did remember that the girl's chakra control was top notch, better than even Sasuke. Sakura had almost no wasted energy in the few jutsu she had learned.

Having someone else to watch might just give his students some pointers.

"Don't cause a problem," Kakashi said. "And you're welcome to share the training ground."

"Thank you, sensei," Sakura said in a relieved tone before she bounced over to the trees to start practicing her technique.

Earlier, she'd been able to walk, run really, up the wall of a room, but if she stopped, she fell back to earth. Judging by the craters and hash marks Sasuke's and Naruto's trees, they were having troubles even keeping a constant rate of chakra going.

Which meant this was a chance to show that she was especially good at something.

Smiling brightly she walked over to a tree and started up it at a fast walking pace worked her up to the tallest branch capable of holding her weight and sat down.

Below her, four sets of eyes looked up, two of them appropriately impressed by her feat, and one pair, the wrong pair, looking quite bitter.

"All right Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted out. "Way to go!"

"All right, Sakura," Kakashi shouted. "You're here to train, not show off, so head back down and get started again."

"I will," the disappointed pink-haired ninja said as she jumped down from her perch to the ground.

She was getting started again when Naruto came over, seemingly to congratulate her more, but quietly putting in a request for advice in the same breath. Sakura was about to tell him to buzz off when she made unintended eye-contact with the jonin, who stared at her meaningfully.

Sweating at the necessity of dealing with the irritating brat of a prankster, Sakura swallowed what she was about to say.

By the end of the day, however, Sakura was impressed herself. Sasuke and Naruto seemed to have endless energy, and after her little bit of surprise, Naruto was improving by leaps and bounds, slowly catching up to Sasuke.

"All right, everybody," Kakashi said. "That's enough for now, you should probably get to your homes. We'll pick this up in the morning, assuming we don't have a mission anyway."

****

Joseibi looked down at the bottle of pellets in her hand as she came to her and Ryoko's apartment. The lights were on, meaning her sister had probably gotten home.

Not having her sister drop her off or pick her up at the academy anymore was somewhat new and strange. On the one hand, she was rather happy about her new-found freedom to go where she wanted after a day of school.

However, and she'd never admit this, she was somewhat missing the after school exchanges with Ryoko.

Climbing up the stairs was simple enough, and then it was just walking into the apartment and locating her sister.

"Oneesan," Joseibi said. "I've got some medicine from that Inuzuka woman my fox form is supposed to take everyday. Can you…the hell?"

Joseibi blinked as she turned a corner and found her elder sister digging through the box that she used to keep the younger's school assignments stored.

"Oh, Imouto-chan," Ryoko said, looking up and biting her lip. "Do you think you can h…help me with something?"

"What are you doing?" Joseibi asked.

"Kakashi-sensei wa…wants me to l..learn to control my chakra," Ryoko said. "He thinks that if I…I can control both chakra and chi that I will…fix s…some of my issues."

"Let me get this straight," Joseibi said. "You want me, your imouto-chan, to teach you, my oneesan, how to deal with the basics of chakra."

"H…hai," Ryoko said nervously.

"Egg rolls," Joseibi said quickly.

"Ano?" the older one muttered, confused.

"I want egg-rolls for dinner for a month's worth of dinners," the blonde said firmly.

"Umm…" the dark-haired Saotome responded. "Assuming that I am within the village? I…I believe I can do that."

"Good," Joseibi said with a victorious smirk that was pure Saotome. "Then let's get started."

****

The Hokage smirked as he looked through the missions coming in that morning and looked over the table to where Naruto fumed under the implication that he'd be having another D-rank mission.

"When are we going to get a real mission!?" Naruto demanded bitterly.

Sasuke had to agree, though he wasn't about to voice such an opinion. These D-rank missions felt like nothing more than a waste of their skills. He understood the need to get a few such missions out of the way to start, but it was getting, in his mind ridiculous.

Ryoko's reaction to Naruto's loud declaration and Sasuke's quiet agreement was equally predictable: she was biting her lip and watching the other two for indications of how they were going to act.

"'A real mission'?" the Hokage asked. "Careful what you ask for. I think I've got a 'real mission' for you."

The smile on the man's face was a bit unnerving as he retrieved a mission scroll and started to look over its information.

"There's a village," he said. "In the Grass Country that is having troubles they want us to investigate."

"What sort of troubles?" Kakashi asked as he accepted the scroll.

"To hear them tell it," the Hokage said. "They're haunted by a witch."

"A witch?" Naruto said, feeling a shiver work down his back. "A real witch?"

"What do they want us to do about this witch?" Kakashi asked.

"They want us to convince her to leave the village alone," the Hokage said. "Peacefully if it at all possible."

"Probably some old lady living outside of town in a shack," Naruto said with a nervous laugh.

Ryoko continued to be looking back and forth between each speaker, not adding much of her own thoughts.

"It'll take about a week to reach the village if you conserve your efforts," the Hokage noted. "So I'd suggest you make whatever preparations you need to make today and get started tomorrow."

"We'll be ready," Sasuke said.

"H…hai," Ryoko agreed from behind the other two.

"Good," the Hokage said in a light manner that slowly became serious. "This shouldn't be too much of a problem, but be on the look out anyway. Most of the time 'witches' are, indeed, just simple old women, but sometimes there's more to it than that."

"Don't worry," Kakashi said confidentally. "I'll look after them."

With that, they started filing out of the room, Ryoko bowing before she left.

****

"So what's the deal with this…err…witch?" Naruto asked as they walked out over the gate.

"I guess that means you didn't read the mission briefing," Kakashi said with a sigh.

"I was supposed to read that?" Naruto said, scratching his head in embarrassment.

"That's the general purpose behind giving you the report," Kakashi said. "Ryoko? Sasuke? Can you explain things?"

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "D..do you mean Uchiha-san or me?"

"Either, or," Kakashi said.

Ryoko looked towards Sasuke who looked back at her and gave a slight shake of his head.

"H…hai," Ryoko said, looking back toward Kakashi. "Th..there have been…mists in the forests near the village hiring us…people have seen a house and a woman dancing in the mists, but people have vanished each time the mists and house a…appear."

"This doesn't seem like the sort of thing a ninja village should be investigating," Sasuke said.

"For the most part, these things are hoaxes or misunderstood natural phenomena," Kakashi said. "That's why exorcisms and similar investigations are usually Class D ranked missions. If it turns out to be something more, we either deal with it or send for back-up. The missing people and the distance from home both make this Class C."

"So, we're basically just going to be trying to find some missing people then?" Naruto asked, frowning.

"That's…"

Kakashi was interrupted as an angry, blonde form landed down in front of the four and pointed at Ryoko.

"Oneesan!" Joseibi declared loudly. "You forgot something…something very important."

"Ano?" Ryoko said, confused. "Oh! S…sumimasen. Umm…my recipes are in the green and blue book…the – imouto-chan! Green and blue! Imouto-chan! Not green and purple!"

Already, the blonde Saotome was rushing back toward the apartment and not listening to the rest.

"What was that all about?" Sasuke asked.

"I pr…promised her egg rolls every night for a month," Ryoko said.

"Can she cook?" Naruto asked.

"No," Ryoko said. "She is not allowed to cook…but she said she w…would find so…someone to cook for her."

"What's in the green and purple book?" Kakashi asked.

"Ano…" Ryoko responded, though there was a tell tale flush of red that made Kakashi think it might be a diary of some sort.

"Anyway," Kakashi said. "Let's get on with the walking."

****

The Hokage frowned at the report in front of him. Of the chunin he'd sent to protect the bridge-builder Tazuna, only one had survived an ambush by two shinobi not more than half a day's walk from the village's outer bounds.

The one survivor was currently in the hospital being treated for some sort of poison, but the minimal information they had on the matter implied that the attackers were a pair of missing nin known as the demon brothers.

B-Class missing nin with names listed in the international bingo book.

He'd have to arrange an investigation into the problem, having missing nin of that rank so close to the village could not be tolerated. Beyond that there was their failure to properly protect their client. Though, of course, had the man been more forthcoming about the danger, they probably wouldn't be in this situation right now.

A part of his mind drifted toward Team 7 and wondered if the mission he'd given them would turn out to be just as dangerous as this other mission had turned out to be.

****

Joseibi walked into the Inuzuka home later that night carrying a small stack of green striped notebooks which she put on the table.

"Hey, Joseibi-chan, what's this?" Hana Inuzuka asked as she picked up one of the notebooks.

"Oneesan left town for a mission," Joseibi said. "But she promised me egg rolls for a month. Somewhere in these notebooks is her recipe. She said it was green and…something."

Joseibi's mouth twitched as she realized her desire to find the recipe had made her not listen as well as normal. It seemed like all Ryoko had to do was say something to do with her egg rolls and Joseibi became as headstrong and reckless as her father and sister.

"So, what's the big deal about these egg rolls?" Hana asked as she picked up some of the notebooks. "Laundry, house-keeping…are these stance drawings for sweeping floors?"

"Everything is training," Joseibi said rolling her eyes. "Oneesan takes that literally."

"Ahh, here's your cook book," Hana said. "You said egg rolls right? Ah, Joseibi's Egg Rolls, I see."

Hana started to read the list of ingredients and started to cock an eyebrow as she read it. The veterinarian looked up at the eight year old girl and then looked back down at the recipe in front of her.

"I think we can make these," the woman said, smiling at the little girl.

Hana thought she could actually see stars in the girl's eyes.

It was a few hours later that Hana noted that one of the notebooks had been set aside and forgotten.

A green and purple striped notebook that, out of curiosity, she opened up to see what domestic chore was written about inside.

Her eyes widened and face flushed as she started skimming through a few pages.

"Mother's Massage Techniques…" she said under her breath.

****

The village stared as the outsiders came in on the road. Long, suspicious faces that stared at the strangers walking into town. The anger in their eyes was palpable as they scanned over the shinobi team as if gauging whether or not the newcomers had insulted them in someway.

Despite the general mood of the people, the village's architecture and appearance was much different. Everything was painted brightly, or shined with a brilliant finish. The village itself was set atop a hill, in a sunny clearing with streets running predominately east to west, with streets sloping up from the center of town.

"Wow, the people here are angry," Naruto said, looking around.

"That only makes sense," Sasuke said. "Given the circumstances."

"The village headman sent in the request," Kakashi said, looking over the buildings. "Let's see, next to the inn….that should be it."

Kakashi walked up to the door of building and politely reached up to ring the bell tied above the roof that hung over the front porch.

Ryoko was looking about, biting her lip.

"Something wrong, Ryoko?" Kakashi asked, as he noted the girl looking around curiously.

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "S…something…bothers me."

Kakashi looked at her carefully.

"Probably nothing," the jonin said after a moment as the door started to open to the house.

The headman was a middle-aged man who looked like any other villager. Given the surroundings, he was probably a carpenter or miller or the like. Until they got inside to see what his house was like, it would be hard to tell, but not too important either way.

The same expression of smoldering anger sat in his eyes as he looked over them with barely restrained energy. He took in the forehead protectors and the symbols on them, and the burning anger turned into a similarly burning eagerness.

"Ah, the shinobi from Konoha!" the man said eagerly. "You're here to handle our witch for us then?"

Kakashi arched an eyebrow.

"That's the plan," Naruto said brightly. "So point her out and we get rid of her for you."

"Heh," the man said. "I like this boy, come in, all of you, we'll get down to business."

The four walked into house, Ryoko bowing politely as they did. There weren't many people in the house, just a young woman whose bearing seemed almost the brightest thing about the whole village so far.

She stood at about average height with vibrant orange hair that she grew down covering her ears and reaching midway to her back. She was dressed in the simple robes of a country priestess.

"This is the priestess of our village," the headman said. "Lady Luta Beia. It's because of her that we've been able to keep the witch at bay so long."

"So long?" Kakashi asked as he sat down. "How long has this witch been a problem?"

"Her family first came to the area out of the east ten years ago," the headman said. "They kept to themselves down the hill for a while, then, six years ago strange warriors raided through the village and when it was over, their house and the whole section of forest she lived in had vanished."

"What, they left a crater?" Naruto asked.

"No," the man said. "I mean that it was as if it had never existed, trails met at places that were once miles apart."

"Whatever dark magics or forbidden jutsu the witch had been using," the priestess said "consigned her home to another realm, but she still tries to return time to time."

"And why call for help only now?" Sasuke asked.

"Because lately she's has been coming very frequently," the headman said. "And this time people have gone missing."

"Any pattern to these events?" Kakashi asked.

"Always at night," the headman said. "In the same place."

"Then, I suppose we should be getting our rest for tonight then," the jonin said.

**************

**************

Author's Notes: Well, shorter than I like for this series, but the next scene I want to do is a bit too much like the beginning of a new chapter than just a new scene.


	7. Undercurrents

The fog crept in that night with four sets of watchful eyes paying heed as it came to a point and started rising into a virtual wall of mist.

Ryoko's eyes widened as the reports of the mist seemed to be turning out true. She bit her lip as the chi about her reacted to the changes taking place. Huge waves that pressed on her such that she almost felt like stepping back.

There was a huge disturbance here, something trying to bulge its way into the world.

Across the way, Naruto felt a shiver down his spine at the creepy atmosphere leaking in past the rising mist. As he watched the mist partially fall back, he saw the valley beyond it and clenched tighter to the tree that was his cover.

Eventually, the witch herself came into view, dancing at the edge of where the mist was rolling back. With each moment the crack in the mist was getting wider and the valley beyond was growing clearer.

"Go," Kakashi said over the radios.

A salvo of kunai struck outwards towards the woman as Ryoko started to move forward. Almost instantly the woman's dance shifted and she rolled out of the way of the salvo.

The woman gave a wordless sound of frustration, black hair hanging down in front of her face as she rolled to her feet and dusted off the tattered black robes she was wearing. As soon as she stopped her dance, the fog started to slowly close back in on her valley.

Ryoko reached her then and was almost staggered by the weight of dark, resting energy that lay on the other side of the bulge. The surprise made her hesitate in her attack, and the dark-haired woman easily shoved the wooden blade wide off target, carrying Ryoko into the air onto her back as she did so.

Rolling up, the martial artist had more than a suspicion as to the nature of their opponent. Sasuke and Naruto came in past her moving to attack the witch.

The black-haired woman dodged aside of their attacks fluidly before leaping out and away from the pair and reaching within her robes to draw out a coiled ribbon. Without turning her head, she slashed the ribbon outward away from either of the three younger warriors.

Ryoko was moving to close the distance with the woman even as she saw the ribbon pulling back to reveal Kakashi-sensei on the other end, one visible eye open in surprise at being found out.

The Saotome girl's charge was interrupted as she had to roll out of the way of the incoming jonin. She was recovering her feet as the jonin caught in the woman's ribbon poofed into smoke and left behind nothing more than a log.

The woman was trying to move her ribbon around again when Kakashi appeared at her side. Unprepared for the sudden appearance of the jonin, the woman could barely resist as one of her arms was gripped and she was brought down to her knees.

"Way to go, sensei," Naruto declared as he and the other two of the team came up to where Kakashi had the woman under control.

"Looks like this mission is over," Sasuke agreed.

Ryoko started to step forth and her eyes widened as she felt the influx of chi about the woman.

"Stay back!" Kakashi said just moments before the woman through her head back.

The hair fell away from her face revealing eyes long ago burned out by some slim, burning object and a mouth with the scars of old cuts standing out against the corners of her mouth.

The image of that scarred face was visible only for a moment before a burst of shimmering red sparks poured out of the woman's mouth into a cloud that surrounded all five of the combatants.

Kakashi snapped in irritation as he rose a hand up to where the gas burned at his eyes, and he felt his prisoner slip his relaxed grip. The kids were covering their eyes and could barely follow the casual movement of their enemy heading back to the edge of the first mist.

The woman, protected within the cloud of her own living essence, felt the mists closing in and the moon setting. The window was closed, she'd failed again.

With a wordless snarl, she leaped into the air, landing outside her cloud of living chi and swirled an eddy of dark chi out of her body into air before her. All about, the dragon chi was pulled toward the magnetic charge of her construct.

Naruto, Kakashi and Ryoko felt themselves drawn heavily towards the anchor of chi, as if gravity were pulling to a new point and with much greater ferocity. Only Sasuke remained standing fully against the strange jutsu.

The woman walked casually forward again, the sparks flowing out of her into the dark eddy behind her. Sasuke moved to intercept the dark woman, but she seemed unconcerned.

As Sasuke moved forward to strike her, the woman let her head and shoulders droop, not focusing at all on avoiding the blow.

Behind the Uchiha, the mist was quickly closing into a wall about the ghostly valley again. It was pulling away as he passed through the woman that they'd been fighting for the last few seconds.

Turning about, the Uchiha watched the woman fade into a figure of mist and be pulled away with the valley until before vanished before the eyes of the ninja again.

Grimacing, Sasuke looked back towards his other teammates.

Ryoko was standing up, sweat covering her face, but Kakashi was down to his knees and Naruto pressed flat against a piece of air noted by a swirling black sphere that was dissolving away into the night.

As soon as it finished dissolving, Naruto fell out of the air to the ground, and Kakashi released a breath from his lungs, standing up.

"The hell is going on?!" Naruto demanded. "Is she really a witch? Or maybe she's a ghost?"

"There were no hand signs in anything she did," Sasuke noted suspiciously. "What sort of Jutsu was that."

"Ryoko?" Kakashi asked.

"I…it was chi," Ryoko said. "B…but, she is m…much better than I am."

"What was that thing at the end?" Naruto asked. "It felt like I had a boulder on top of me."

"I…do not know, but…i..it was pulling at my Dragon Chi," Ryoko said. "So I let it go and kept m..my dark chi."

"There's more than one kind of chi?" Naruto asked.

"Hai," Ryoko said. "Dragon chi, is en..energetic, light and warm. Dark chi is restful, h..heavy and cool. Li…living beings mostly fill with dragon chi…s…some few h..have dark chi naturally. Well…dark chi is everywhere dragon chi is, b..but…usually one is much gr…greater in strength. S..so it looks like there's only one or the ot.." She looked to Sasuke and bit her lip.

"I understand," Kakashi said. "What about you?"

"I've trained to let both in at once," Ryoko said. "S…so can the witch, b..but she expelled her Dragon Chi with th…those sparks."

"Well, she can't beat us," Naruto said with a smirk. "So all we have to do is try to make sure she doesn't get away."

"Easier said than done," Kakashi noted. "And we apparently can't capture her, she'll be pulled back with the rest of her home when her techniques end."

"Then we'll just have to kill her," Sasuke said grimly.

"Perhaps," Kakashi said. "But we'll deal with that later. In the meantime, I want to see if we can learn more about this village and this woman."

****

"You chased her off and didn't even lose one person of your group?" the headman said. "This says a lot for your eventual success. I'm glad I thought to call you in."

"That means no one else is missing then?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, it's too early to tell if she didn't pop up to steal people away from somewhere else," the headman said. "She usually takes people from the logger camp or the trapper's cabins around the edges of the village's hill."

"Oh, I see," Kakashi said. "And I take it you've sent someone to guard against her appearance each night?"

"Yes, and we usually end up losing one or two each time she appears," the headman said.

"And what does the priestess do with this?" Sasuke asked.

"She lays blessings on the village folk that go out to guard against the witch," the headman said. "And whenever the woman tries to break back into our world you can see the lights of her battle in the shrine over yonder. We could see them last night. Shouldn't you have spoken to her before making your attempt tonight?"

"Oh, well, we have our own ways of dealing with these things," Kakashi noted casually, one eye squinting closed.

"I'm wondering why that priestess wasn't out actually helping us," Naruto said under his breath.

"Uzumaki-san," Ryoko whispered with a slight degree of chastisement.

"Well, we've got to look more into the background of this problem to prepare for tonight," Kakashi said. "Naruto, Sasuke, Ryoko, let's go."

Outside the headman's home, Kakashi led the group down the street for several minutes before finding a quiet place to talk.

"Naruto, Sasuke," he said. "Make a circuit of the houses outside the village, talk to them, see if they're missing anyone. Ryoko and I will speak to Priestess Luta. How close do you need to be to feel anything about a person's chi."

"It…d..depends," Ryoko said glancing furitively toward Sasuke standing about eight feet away. "Uchiha-san I..I can feel fr…from h..here."

As she spoke, the girl took a few shuffling steps away Uchiha, breathing a slight sigh of relief as she did so.

"Wait," Sasuke thought to himself, arching an eyebrow at the motion. "Shouldn't she be trying to get closer to me? What was all that talk about having children with a 'manly man' if she wasn't talking about me?"

"All right," Kakashi said. "How about myself and Naruto."

"I can feel you at arms length, Kakashi-sensei," Ryoko said. "Uzumaki-san I need to b..be closer to. His flows wr..wrap tightly…v..very tightly. Why, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Because if the witch is a chi-user," he said. "It's possible this priestess that fights her is too. You didn't notice anything yesterday, but she was across the room maybe five or eight meters. This time, I want you to find a reason to place yourself close enough to her to sense her chi-flows as well."

"If sh…she uses chi like that w…witch," Ryoko said. "She'll…she will…she will…she will! Notice me first."

"Can't be helped," Kakashi said. "We need to know if anything is strange about her."

"Th…the whole village is…uncomfortable," Ryoko said.

"Really," Kakashi said. "Okay, everybody, get to your tasks."

The sound of low thunder came to the four and they looked up to see a small roll of dark clouds forming in the sky.

"Oh, that's a sudden rain," the Copycat Ninja said.

"Ah, man, let's get on with this before it starts," Naruto declared loudly. "Come on, Sasuke!"

And with that the hyperactive ninja was running for the village edge with Sasuke moving behind him, shaking his head.

"The moron forgets he has to ask where the outlying houses are," Sasuke said with a sigh.

"Sasuke," Kakashi said. "Head the other way, that way you can cover more space in less time."

"Assuming Naruto finds anything," Sasuke said before leaping to a roof top.

Kakashi laughed under his breath and then rolled his eyes.

"I wonder if this isn't a mistake, country people can be easy to offend," Kakashi said.

"Ano…?"

"Oh well, it'll be a life lesson for them," Kakashi decided, shrugging.

****

The rain came over the village and finished over the space of twenty minutes, sprinkling the entire area with a light drizzling coverage before the clouds parted and the sun came streaming back in over the village and the woods around it.

"Damn sun," the forester was saying as he looked up, irritably and then looked back to the tree in front of him.

"What's wrong with the sun," a boisterous voice asked, startling the man to dodge aside several feet and seeing the orange-clad boy hunched up on a rock beside where he had been standing.

Catching his breath, the forester stood up straight and moved to the tree and easily peeling off the bark to reveal the dry wood underneath.

"See this?" he said. "We've had almost no rain for close to four years now. It comes in spurts here and there, but mostly, we've had sun, sun and more sun. Several of the trees around here have died and others are dying. The wood is useless for anything other than firewood."

"So there's a drought then?" Naruto reasoned.

"That's the size of it," the forester said. "Needs to let up soon or this piece of forest is going to turn dead all the way through. Anyway, its been trying harder to rain of late, and I hope the sun lets up, but what are you doing here, boy."  
"Oh, we're here about the witch," Naruto said.

"Witch?" the forester said and he looked to Naruto's headband. "Oh…shinobi then. And you're here about the cackler then?"

"Cackler?" Naruto said. "You mean the witch?"

"I didn't know her as a witch," the forester said. "Just a pain in the neck. Laugh fit to rend metal. Her husband brought them in from the east somewhere, took over the valley and built a house. Almost a small compound really. It vanished six years back, heck the whole valley vanished."

"Yeah," Naruto said. "We heard that story. She was messing with stuff she shouldn't and got pushed outta the world. And now she's making people go missing while she's trying to get back in."

"Are you going to let me tell you what I know, boy, are you just going to interrupt me?" the forester demanded.

"Eh, heh, heh," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry, go on."

"Anyway, the family was named 'Musk' or something like that," the forester said. "The wife, what that foreign priestess calls a witch, was from the Land of Tea I think, judging by her features, but the husband and sister-in-law were something else. Pink and white hair, pointed ears. Strange folk to be sure. And for siblings they weren't too friendly, never saw one in the same place as the other. The wife was good for medicines though. Can't remember her name unfortunately."

"I know people with pink hair," Naruto said under his breath. "It's not that strange."

"A few years later, a bunch of strange foreign warriors are about the place," the forester said. "One of my neighbors said they took away either the husband or his sister, didn't hear anything else until the village started talking about the cackler as a witch."

"And that's when people started going missing, then?" Naruto asked.

"Feh, I think that's just people getting tired of this drought," the forester said. "And moving on to the next village. They get rain there right like clockwork. Right in sight of us, stops like a wall a mile out of that shiny batch of wood up on the hill."

"Nani?" Naruto said, looking up toward where the man was pointing. "You mean the village."

"Of course I mean the village," the forester said. "Now, if you don't mind, I've a got trees to look to."

Naruto shrugged and stood up, starting to move off before he remembered something.

"Uh, Mister, where's the nearest house from here?" he asked.

****

Sasuke's normal expression was a frown, so it was no surprise that he was frowning. Therefore there is little point to pointing out that he was frowning. Nevertheless, he was frowning.

Of the three houses he'd been directed to, the first was abandoned, likely long before the situation began. The second had a small family living in it, but no one had gone missing in the night.

At the third, he was finding more signs of what he was supposed to be investigating. However, unless the witch could be in two places at once or else had tried to enter the world at another time and place, he couldn't see how she was involved in the scene he was looking at.

The door was hanging off its hinges and the room within in was in a state of disarray with the previous night's dinner splattered about, along with much of the furniture. Scorch marks everywhere and a fine layer of ash covering everything in sight.

"This seems more like the work of a beast than a witch of any sort," Sasuke said.

He re-evaluated his estimation as he looked at some of the damage done and noted that while the overall damage was wild, the individual points of attack were made with high precision.

If there was any sign of the former occupant of this house, it was most likely in the ashes that covered nearly everything.

"Looks like someone went 'missing' last night after all," he noted unnecessarily.

****

Kakashi appraised the shrine as he approached it. It looked as if it was quite old, with dry, cracking wood and some peeling paint that appeared to be due for some maintenance. Despite that, there was a definite feeling of…activity to the place, not particularly chakra, but it seemed to press on his chakra.

He looked to Ryoko and watched her face go from nervous to slightly straining as she stepped onto the shrine grounds and forward to the building itself.

Whatever it was the Saotome girl felt it too, perhaps more so.

Ryoko herself felt a draining sensation similar to what she'd felt last night when the witch formed the dark chi eddy to create a magnetic pull on dragon chi. Only, different. Last night, it was like her chi wanted to flow down a steep hill and she was working against nature. This time, it was like something was trying to tear into her body and rip her dark chi away from her.

It took her a moment of controlled breathing to draw in the abundant dragon chi to replace the dark chi as she let it flow out. Slowly the strain lessened, breathing came easier, but it still felt…strange to her.

"Hello," Kakashi called out. "Is anybody here, we'd like to speak to the priestess of this shrine."

The orange-haired priestess from before stepped out of a side room into the main gallery with a comforting smile on her face as she moved about, tending to the incense and other daily duties of the shrine.

"Good morning, shinobi of the Leaf," the woman said. "I hope your actions went well last night."

"Not as well as we hoped," Kakashi said. "Your witch escaped, but we had no injuries."

"A mix of good and bad news then," the priestess said. "What is your business here?"

"We've come to compare notes," the jonin said. "I've heard of your own struggles with this woman and wondered if you could tell me about them. Apparently her chakra reaches out here? Oh, I'm sorry, I don't believe I've introduced my subordinate here, have I? Ryoko, please step forward."

"H…hai," Ryoko said, starting to step forward with a bow. "I…I am Ryoko Sao…"

"There's no need, Kakashi-san," the priestess said with a negligent wave. "The girl will clearly be able to tell I am a chi master. I doubt a girl with her stunted level of awareness could handle the chi around me after such a battle."

Ryoko slumped and lowered her head, biting her lip, at the rather blunt assessment of her skills.

"Ah, I apologize, Priestess Luta Beia" Kakashi said. "But I thought it might be impolite to ask."

"It is all right," the priestess said. "Now as you said, I have had my own battles. The witch herself does not reach out here, but I have some countermeasures about her prison which must be maintained when she strains them."

"I see," the jonin said. "When did you first come here, by the way?"

"I first heard of the situation…five years ago," Luta said. "I came here one year later and built this shrine with the help the villagers to keep the dark woman's magic contained."

Kakashi didn't let it show, but he felt a bit of surprise to find that the shrine was so young. From the condition of the building materials, how everything was aged and dried by the days of sun, he'd have suspected it to be much older than that.

"This is the seal I use to hold her prison solid," Luta Beia said. "It needs a constant flow of chi to remain and when she attempts to break out, the demands of power are intense. The egg itself starts to crack from inside as she pushes out, and I must bend all my will to keep it intact."

She pointed to a complexly jeweled egg in the place of honor within the shrine. It was a shimmering mix of many colors reflecting mostly the golden tones of the shrine around it. Ryoko's eyes widened as she moved closer to the object and could feel the flows of chi bending in to it.

As she got closer, the feeling was so strong she could actually see the bands of purified dragon chi wrapping into the egg tighter and tighter. Though the chi was breaking off underneath where there was little space to move and a resting chi was needed.

"Why is there no dark chi?" Ryoko asked softly.

"Pardon?" the priestess said, looking from Kakashi toward the girl he'd brought in.

"Th…there is only dragon chi…" she said.

"You mean yang," the priestess said. "Dragon chi, fu zhensong is the technique of drawing the yang out of the world, dark chi, chakuri-chi, is the cursed technique of drawing out yin. Do you not even know that much? What sort of fool was your teacher to be so incomplete in his instruction?"

Her tone was patronizing and pitying all at once.

"M…my father is an excellent teacher," Ryoko said in a manner that was both nervous and firm at once.

"I am sorry again," Kakashi said. "Ryoko can be something of a handful at times. Ryoko, please apologize to the woman, and then we'll be on our way."

"Ano…"

Ryoko said looking up toward Kakashi a bit confused. The ninja returned the look firmly and slowly, the girl relented…for the moment, pushing the insult to her family aside…for the moment.

"Sumimasen, Luta Beia-sama," Ryoko said, nodding her head and inclining her back slightly.

Kakashi arched an eyebrow at the abrupt lean of a bow.

He was suddenly glad it wasn't Ryoko's mother or younger sister the woman had inadvertently insulted. He doubted he could have convinced Ryoko to give any sort of apology.

"I think we've gotten everything we came for, Priestess," Kakashi said soothingly. "I think we'll be better prepared for tonight."

"I do hope so," the woman said with a manner of gentle appeal that, after seeing some of her behavior toward Ryoko, held a hollow manner. "It would be best if this witch's time were over quickly."

"So we hope," the jonin said as he and Ryoko left the shrine.

After they were gone, Luta looked toward the egg and frowned.

"How did she know there was no yin in the egg?" the woman asked cautiously. "Even a fully trained adept would simply assume it was a strong yang flow and they just couldn't see the trace yin, but she realized after a couple of moments standing near it with out even the training to see flows."

The woman was walking toward the back rooms of the shrine when she froze at the doorway, a certain memory of that conversation coming clear to her suddenly.

"I…I am Ryoko Sao…"

She remembered the girl's figure and stature.

"Ryoko Sao…"

Closer now on the face and shoulders

"Ryoko Sao…"

Shorten the hair.

"Sao…"

Make the hair red.

"Sao…"

Remove the glasses

"Sao…"

Make the eyes blue.

The priestess's lips finally opened and finished the name.

"Saotome."

****

The shinobi came together again as the night was closing in around them. Soon it would be time for them to venture back into the forest to prepare for the witch's renewed attempt to escape.

"There's something weird about this," Naruto said. "The headman said those raiders were from the witch, but that forester said they came to take away her husband and sister-in-law."

"He implied," Sasuke corrected, "but I agree. That woman we saw last night used nothing like what must have caused the damage in that cabin."

"That doesn't mean she can't, however," Kakashi said. "We also had some interesting discussions with the priestess. In fact, your forester's drought began about the same time she arrived. And she confirmed that Ryoko's 'dark chi' and 'dragon chi' are the same as yin and yang."

"Yin and yang?" Naruto asked, beside him Sasuke looked toward Kakashi as well.

"It will come up later," Kakashi said. "Suffice to say that chakra uses the same terms for some advanced concepts."

"Ano…"

That gave more credence to Kakashi-sensei's assertion that she would need to learn both chakra and chi control.

"Ryoko," Kakashi said. "When you said no Dark Chi, did you mean in the seal, or in the building. You had troubles walking in, as I remember."

"I…I had to release all my da…yin," Ryoko said. "Something was trying to destroy it inside me a..nd…I didn't think that would be good."

"Ryoko-chan, you just said 'didn't'," Naruto said.

"Ano…" Ryoko blinked and then opened her eyes wide before bowing low. "WAH! Sumimasen!! I didn't…did not…did not…"

"Hey, Ryoko-chan," Naruto said. "I wasn't trying to correct you, it's okay."

"Bu..but, Mother would not accept s…such…" Ryoko started to protest.

"It's not important how you talk," Naruto said. "Just what you say."

"And right now," Sasuke said. "We have more important things to do then talk about speech patterns."

"Hai," Ryoko said. "Su..sumimasen. We were ta..talking about the chi..in the shrine, yes?"

"That's right," Kakashi said. "You're saying something was destroying yin there?"

"H..hai," Ryoko said. "Uchiha-san should n…not go there. M..most of his chi is …yin, it would be…bad for him."

Sasuke frowned at the girl's warning, as if he'd need her to protect him.

"Was it the seal?" Kakashi asked.

She shook her head.

"There…there was no yin in the seal," Ryoko said. "Th…that is why it constantly needs to be fixed."

Kakashi nodded and then looked out toward the horizon.

"Well, let's go, it's getting close to when she might be making her assault," Kakashi said.

****

The dark-haired woman wondered why she was bothering to make this attempt, she wasn't prepared for full scale battle with three shinobi and one chi-apprentice. Especially not ones that could see the visual spectrum, unlike her.

Her chi senses made her completely capable of defending herself, just as if her eyes still worked, but attacking was…iffy. She was surprised she managed to snag the older ninja last time.

In addition, she was relying on yin to break the prison that held her and the accidental "guests" she'd picked up over the last six years. Yin did not enhance speed and strength with the same efficiency that yang did.

Still, it would be interesting to see how they responded from an outsider's perspective.

She only hoped she had made her preparations correctly.

What she wouldn't give to have either her husband or her old rival turned master present to tell her whether she was guiding the chi correctly for her goals or not.

Then again, neither of them dealt much more in sorcery than they had to. They stuck to channeling, the martial aspect of chi, for the most part.

That was fine, she was much better at things that required careful preparation than she was improvising on the fly. She'd just have to be the first Anything Goes martial artist to master sorcery instead of just dabble.

Gods, how many times had she told herself that the last six years?

****

This time, as the fog started to roll in, Kakashi had his sharingan eye uncovered. It was hard to tell for which distortion was the prison seal and which was the so-called witch's attempts to break through.

It was nothing like watching a chakra sealing art.

At the moment, he wasn't even sure he could really tell there were two distortions and not just his assumption there was. Sighing, he let his eye rest again and waited for the dark-haired woman to make her appearance.

There was something a little bit different about the bulge into their reality this time, but he couldn't quite lay a finger on it.

Slowly the dancing figure came into view, moving with a strange lack of caution despite last night's results.

Frowning, Kakashi felt something was off, but still, their opportunities at this woman were few and short.

"Go!" he shouted.

His three subordinates rushed forward below him and the fight started off similar to what had happened last night. The kunai disrupted the witch's dance and Ryoko moved in to try and fight hand to hand, stubbornly still using her bokken.

Kakashi was about to move himself when he noticed that the fog was still pushing out. Last night, the fog had started rolling back in as soon as they interrupted her, but this time.

He lifted his eye patch again and opened his sharingan eye to take in the view before him.

The woman they were fighting this time had no chakra.

Kakashi started scanning about the area but his eye couldn't see past the barrier of mist that led to the witch's prison.

He leaped forward coming down into the fight, ending it quickly by kicking through the chi-image and causing it to vanish into nothing.

The fog was pushing out slower now, it was going to stop soon.

Was that a pre-arranged effect as well this time?

Where was the witch?

"A clone?" Naruto protested. "What kind of cheap coward is this witch?"

"Not a coward," Kakashi warned watching the still wide gate carefully. "Just very cautious. She knows she can't beat us so she's giving herself a chance to see what we're capable of, what sort of tactics and abilities we use. This woman calculates."

He looked back toward his team and looked to see how each of them was taking that information in, even as the fog started to slowly roll back in as whatever trick the woman had used started to fall apart.

Kakashi hadn't even started to evaluate his team when something charged forward from the edges where the fog had pushed back the prison.

It was vaguely humanoid shaped, but stood out like a walking fire in the dark of night. The thing moved silently and swiftly in a straight line towards the backs of his team, aiming in particular for the only girl.

"Ryoko, move!" Kakashi shouted.

The Saotome turned about and eyes widened briefly before she shifted naturally into a stance to kick back at the approaching thing. It was a weak attacker, easily read. She was surprised that she hadn't felt it coming, actually, but perhaps all the distortions in the chi around this battlefield had hid it.

Her foot struck perfectly placed to send the thing flying backwards.

Only it didn't.

The creature passed straight through her foot and her body.

In an instant, the form ripped through and stole the dr…yang chi she'd gathered at the shrine earlier.

Where it did so, she could feel the flesh and organs trying to burn, fighting the yin that was still in her system.

She'd never felt anything quite like it, or at least not to such an extent, and could only stand frozen, eyes wide and as the sensation washed over her.

And she toppled.


	8. Erosion

Sitting in the shrine and focusing her will outward, Luta Beia directed the movement of her aura to turn about, wanting to enjoy the sight of the Saotome spawn reducing to ash. Instead, what she saw was Ryoko falling, but body still intact.

"The child didn't die?" the false priestess growled from her shrine.

Of course not, poorly trained or not, she had some control of her chi, and she carried yin within her.

The shinobi were already moving.

That blonde-haired one stepped to catch the Saotome as she fell while the other two moved between her aura and the fallen member of their team.

Unfortunately, that trapped her aura between the slowly filling break in the prison behind her and the way back to her body. Until the prison repaired itself, going back that way would mean the destruction of her aura and leave her weak for sometime afterward.

Then again, an extended fight would use up much of her chi as well.

Luta firmed her lips together, she'd just have to take it out of the shinobi.

Decision firmly set, she started to move for the two blocking her path.

Their chakra might shield them a little, but they had no real way to stop her aura, this fight was over.

The dark-haired one filled with yin struck the shape of her aura with a kunai, but that mattered little. She let the lifeless thing stick in her battle-aura just to drive home the point that they couldn't hurt her that way.

Then the forward progress of her aura was stopped as a ribbon of black cloth, whipped out and around her, holding her still.

****

Kakashi watched as the so-called witch's ribbon came out of nowhere, wrapping about the fiery figure. Soon after that became visible, its wielder faded into view, standing at the edge of the valley beyond the closing fog.

He took his opportunity there.

The priestess had corrected Ryoko's labeling of dragon and dark chi to yin and yang, and what he was seeing here, if he had to guess from other bits of information was an expression of pure yang.

That meant he had a way to deal with it.

The copy-cat ninja ran through a small series of hand-signs as Sasuke started to thrust forward.

The fog in the area, thick with the dark-haired woman's yin, came together into a wash of water that flowed over the energy shape, bringing the bulk of that yin downward and destroying the form even before Sasuke could reach it.

In the valley beyond, the dark-haired woman started dancing, and the fog pushed outward again.

Sasuke started to move to challenge her, kunai in hand.

"Stop, let her dance," Kakashi said.

"Sensei?" Sasuke asked, confused. "Our mission is to stop her."

"Our mission is to stop the witch harassing this village," Kakashi said. "She's not the witch. That's not her."

****

Luta Beia gasped and fell back as the masked shinobi brought the yin forming the break in her prison forward. She'd never have thought that a chakra user would think of such a thing, to use the pre-established flows of a chi-master against them.

To make matters worse, as she pulled herself to her feet, the sound of cracking and splintering crystal brought her eyes to the jeweled egg that was the seal's physical form.

This wasn't unusual, but she'd thought the shinobi had already dealt with the witch, given the way that the fog was rolling back and they were just standing there. How had the woman still had power to interfere with her?

And then still able to thrust at the gates of her prison.

Luta Beia felt the sweat pouring down her face as the cracks in the seal came quicker and louder, realizing that she had no energy with which to stop it just now.

She was going to break out.

That outsider queen was going to break out of her prison.

If that woman got out, there'd be fewer controls on Herb.

She'd be a pariah.

A female given a simple task of maintaining the prison of a blinded foreigner aristocrat.

Graced with a life outside the heavy patriarchy of the Musk society.

And now, they were going to drag her back to that hell.

No, she couldn't let this happen.

The prison seal shattered as the sound of thunder resounded around the village, bringing rain down every outside the bounds of the hill itself.

****

"I…I don't know," Naruto said as he held the girl in his arms.

Kakashi walked over as fog continued to spread out and he heard the sound of thunder in the sky above. Ryoko was unconscious and breathing with a raspy sound that didn't sound her superior did not like.

"Lay her on the ground, gently," Kakashi told Naruto.

The blonde-haired ninja did so and stood up as Kakashi bent down to check Ryoko over.

He'd been practically useless, hadn't even tried to be useful actually.

Kakashi-sensei had destroyed that thing. Sasuke had managed to hit with a kunai. Ryoko had tried to kick before it walked through her and even the witch, who was supposed to be an enemy, had managed to immobilize it.

All he'd managed to do was catch Ryoko as she fell.

A sudden crash of thunder was followed by a downpour of rain washed over the scene and the supposed witch stopped dancing to sit down on the ground, taking in deep breaths.

Kakashi looked toward the house that sat within the valley that was now back were it should have been and lifted Ryoko up.

"Let's get inside out of the rain," he said.

Sasuke nodded from where he sat watching the woman that had started out their enemy.

It took only moments to reach the house and walk inside. It was, at one time, a rich and elegant, but had, over the years become more than a little rundown if the first room was anything to judge by.

Kakashi was lying Ryoko down on the table when a nervous figure appeared in one the doorways leading into the rest of the house.  
The figure was a girl, probably somewhere between fourteen and sixteen. She dressed similarly to the villagers on the hill, but was thoroughly patched and repaired. It was, in fact similarly tattered as the robes worn by the dark-haired woman.

"Oh dear," she said. "More guests. I'm not sure how much room we have left. Uh…where's Kodachi-sama?"

"The witch?" Naruto asked. "I think she's still out there in the rain."

Soon after he spoke, a stick smacked into the back of his head.

"Oww!" the blonde snapped out. "What the hell was that for?"

Eyes turned around to see the woman, Kodachi apparently, walking carefully through the door, hair down in front of her face.

"Kodachi-sama!" the girl said, moving forward to the woman's side. "Were you…"

The dark-haired woman gave the girl a thumbs up sign as the girl moved to her side and took her arm, leading her to the table.

"Really…it's…over?" the girl asked as the other woman turned her head toward where Ryoko lay.

This was responded with a shaking head and then a series of other gestures that seemed

"Yes, ma'am, paper, pen and medicines. I'll get some right away," the girl said cheerfully before disappearing back into the house. "Oh! Everyone will be so happy that we're back in the world!"

"Are you a healer?" Kakashi asked the woman that was now also checking Ryoko out.

The gesture that followed was a wavery sort of hand gesture that more or less said "so-so." Then she indicated the door that the girl had left through and gave a thumbs up sign.

Impatience and stress getting to him, Naruto marched over to the woman and moved to get into her face.

"What's with all the hand signs," he demanded. "Why don't you just talk?"

"Here's the paper and pen, Kodachi-sama," the returning girl said as she brought a small pile of papers to her mistress's side.

The dark-haired woman took a paper and the pen and jagged writing three words across the sheet in large letters before handing it to Naruto.

"Because I can't!"

Naruto flushed brightly as he read the paper and then backed off as the woman started handing Kakashi and the girl papers with questions and statements on them.

****

The headman opened the door to see the form of his village's priestess. A pointed tip peeked out of disorderly mass of orange hair that usually hid the features that marked her as a Musk.

"Priestess Luta Beia," the man said, confused and worried to see the woman showing up looking as if she'd been through a battle and lost. "What's the matter."

"I'm afraid the prison's been broken," the woman said.

"What!? We'll have to raise the village," the headmen declared, starting to go back into his house.

He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He was turned about to see Luta looking up at him with glowing eyes and a steam flowing out of her mouth.

"I was thinking you'd help in another way," she said with a hungry tone of voice.

****

The house the dark-haired woman lived in was built for a small family, but it was currently housing fifteen men and women who had "vanished" at different points over the past six years.

The ones that had been there the longest were travelers that had wandered into the valley on the first nights Kodachi had been trying to break out. Back then she'd been unsuccessful even without interference. Some of the others were villagers that had been trapped with her when their interference had stopped her from being successful.

Not all the missing people had been victim to that fiery thing outside.

Sasuke considered this as he, Naruto and Kakashi sped away from it through the rain back towards the village, his thoughts drifting back towards what they were told in the house.

****

"Neither the girl child nor I am fit for fighting yet," the girl-servant read from her note, word for word. "I shall need some time to recover from this night's sorcery and she is healing fast with Mokya's treatment and the yin, but you need to go now, before too much can happen."

At the mention of the name, the girl bowed herself.

"How strong is she?" Kakashi asked.

"From what you said she is a false master, and reckless," Mokya said, reading from another note. "But I would call her an A-rank mission. She is dangerous, but her power is an illusion and fragile. The chi doesn't want to do what she makes it do."

"Seriously, the woman has become a monster," Mokya read. "The villagers may have already been primed by her to feed her strength, you must go now if you wish to save them as your mission states. I will come when your friend is ready to join the fight. And with such overwhelming forces against her she is doomed."

Mokya cleared her throat politely and took a deep breath.

"OHHHHHH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" she cackled out with a shrill, high-pitched tone. Then she turned toward Kodachi and continued in a much more polite tone of voice. "Is that a good laugh, Kodachi-sama?"

The silent woman raised her hand into a thumb's up sign as the three ninja looked toward Mokya cautiously.

"Oh, yes, if she grabs you, keep your mouth closed," Mokya read from a last note.

****

The crowd of villagers streaming down the hill was as clear an indicator that the priestess had dropped her civil act as anything else. Naruto landed among some of the few that had stopped to stare up at the sight of their village, resplendent in the dark of the night as if the sun had already risen to shine on it.

"Is that priestess up there?" Naruto asked.

"She's gone crazy," one of the villagers declared. "Killing everyone she meets."

"Not for long she isn't," Naruto declared, before charging up the slope of the hill.

The other shinobi had already leapt ahead of Naruto and landed in the center of the village, buildings glowing brightly in lines of power. Ashes swirled on the winds that wouldn't settle in the center of which was the jailer-priestess.

The orange hair flowed on the wind, glowing with a brilliant light that radiated out from her. The eyes shined brilliantly gold as a similarly colored mist breathed out of her frowning mouth.

"You," she said. "You were brought here to eliminate her, not free her."

"I believe the mission was to eliminate a witch," Takashi declared.

Sasuke squinted against the brightness of the surroundings, feeling the oppressive energy more than Kakashi did. He remembered Ryoko's warnings earlier that the woman's shrine would be dangerous for him, had the entire village become like that shrine?

Whatever, he had a job to do.

The young ninja tossed a salvo of kunai outward as he rushed forward, another kunai in hand. Kakashi moving with him into the attack.

The witch waved a hand, and a golden wave of visible energy washed outward to brush aside the kunai. Several other such waves accompanied each of her blocks as he tried to strike in at her.

The witch leaped upward to avoid being swallowed down into the ground and helpless. As she leaped up, the priestess thrust her arms outward and the chi struck out toward the jonin in a wave of golden fire.

Kakashi leaped into the air above and rained a barrage of blows on the woman driving her back down towards the ground.

"Shinobi, you don't know what I am," the priestess declared. "I am of the Musk Dynasty, for thousands of years we've subjugated the strongest beasts and martial artists and brought them into our bloodlines. We're the perfect warriors."

As she finished her declaration she slashed out with a kick as Kakashi landed, impacting with Kakashi's arm as he blocked the attack with a grunt, a burst of golden power accompanying the impact.

Between Kakashi and Sasuke, the woman was forced to spend more time and energy in defense, but she was holding her own. Golden arcs of energy streamed past her arms and legs, intercepting fists, legs and kunai as she struck outward with lances of the same covering her hands.

Sasuke grimaced as he blocked another blow and it felt more like intercepting an iron bar than a human hand. The woman was growing progressively stronger and faster, it seemed, rather than weaker. Every so often, he had flashes of seeing her body filled with energy which was trying to go in every direction but the way it was going.

"Feeling strained?" the woman asked Sasuke.

"I think you'll find that I have enough to beat you," Sasuke noted.

"Do you really?" the woman asked as she twisted into open palmed strike into Kakashi's chest.  
The masked ninja rolled backwards, impact throwing him across the street.

The victorious expression on the woman's face was short-lived as the jonin vanished into a puff of smoke, leaving empty air.

Her concentration slipping, the woman failed to notice as Sasuke slammed a kunai into her back.

The Uchiha expected the woman to crumple to the ground from the strike after Naruto's henged clone had been dispersed. Instead, her face flashed with anger and she whipped about to grab the young man.

In his surprise, Sasuke forgot the warning about closing his mouth.

The flush of energy tore through him in a burning torrent of blue light out of his mouth and into the woman's.

Almost the same time, the woman screamed and backed away from Sasuke, letting him go.

The young shinobi dropped to his knees, coughing as the woman he was fighting screamed in combined pain and rage.

"Yin balanced imp!" she shrieked charging forward.

Her attack was stopped however, as she turned to deal with the arrival of Naruto and several clones.

"You okay, Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

"I'm fine," Sasuke said, catching his breath. "Keep your eyes on her."

He tried to come to his feet and back to the fight with Naruto's clones when the woman screamed.

****

Kakashi fixed his attention back to the structures ahead of him. He was wishing at the moment that he had a Hyuuga with him. He had a feeling they'd be able to more easily see the places where the flows of energy were twisted.

For his part, he had to look very carefully, at least at first. It was like looking for a heat wave in the summer, looking too directly made it vanish.

An enraged scream drew his eyes toward the center of town where he could see Naruto and Sasuke's chakra swirling in battle. In the distance, he could see a glimmer of light as the sun struggled to shine.

He'd have to finish with his task quickly, he wasn't certain Naruto and Sasuke would be able to keep her busy much longer. .

Just as well that it looked like he was almost finished.

****

Naruto landed in a crouch as his clones were blown away by the force of the woman's scream. Some of his clones failed to land properly and disrupted in smoke as they hit various buildings or obstacles.

Gritting his teeth along with several of his clones, Naruto threw himself back into the battle.

With each motion the woman either dispersed one of his clones or struck him and it was still as if she was growing stronger than weaker. A growl started to work its way out of his throat and he barely dodged a golden wreathed strike before lashing outward, fingers curled unconsciously like claws.

It was like the burning anger and rage filling the area was leaking into him as well, and it was drawing something out.

His yin-balance had kept him from most of the immediate consequences of Luta Beia's attempt to devour it, but now the world started to grow more indistinct around him.

Sasuke didn't have the knowledge to understand what was happening. It wasn't normally something that would be a problem, but Luta Beia's sorcery had warped the area to be unnaturally devoid of yin, and he was yin-balanced.

It hadn't been so bad before, when most of the flow-shaping magic had been restricted to the Musk women's shrine. He hadn't even noticed compared to Ryoko who immediately felt uncomfortable in the village.

Even while fighting in the village now, until the sudden destruction of most of the chi in him, it was like slowly running out of breath, a vaguely noticeable strain. Then the attack had come like an over-enthusiastic friend striking you on the back while you were swimming, a shock that brought with it a mouthful of water.

The trickle of yang he unconsciously allowed through was enough to keep him alive, but not much more.

"Sasuke! Look out!" Naruto yelled out.

The Uchiha could only vaguely see the glowing form of the woman charging out toward him. He tried again to stand and either meet the attack or roll out of the way, but his body wouldn't seem to listen to him.

Then Naruto was in the way, surrounded by a reddish glow and taking the witch-priestess's blow before she could reach Sasuke, his feet digging a furrow into the ground behind his motion as his teeth stood out sharply in an open mouthed grimace.

"What's this you carry, poisoning the chi, brat?" the priestess demanded as she and Naruto leaned against each other. "You think to match a demon's might against the power of the Musk?"

"You aren't hurting anymore of my friends!" Naruto declared in almost a roar.

The reddish energy around him blasted outward sending both himself and the priestess flying backwards.

Naruto landed easily, but was finding it harder to focus on anything in particular. He was filled with a rage he was only barely able to contain. Before he'd directed it at the priestess, but now, after that conflict, he had to bend all his will inward to keep himself controlled.

Untrained in the efforts of keeping the kyuubi locked, he couldn't yet recognize the sensation of it trying to escape, nor completely direct his will at something he didn't know the cause of.

The combination left him more or less paralyzed for the moment.

The priestess landed hard, fangs showing like a wild animal as she gripped out with hands and feet and slowly drew herself up. The injuries she'd taken fighting Sasuke were growing harder to ignore, and now it looked as if she'd have to deal with a demon's chakra as well.

Still, her preparations were running strong and the sun would soon be rising. Then the power she had available to her would be at its strongest. Meanwhile, these two were nearing the end of what they could do, and their master had yet to make an appearance.

Luta stalked forward, eyes narrowing like the various animals that her Musk-blood descended from, scanning from Sasuke breathing hard to the crouched, similarly animalistic Naruto.

Her decision to attack was interrupted as a figure dropped into the scene of the fight, carrying with her a weak strand of the yin filling the dark clouds and somberly falling rain beyond the bounds of the village.

"You!" Luta roared angrily as she took in Kodachi taking a comfortable stance in the middle of the village.

A moment later, Ryoko landed at her side, bokken not in hand.

With a simple movement, a soft wash of darkness rippled outward from Kodachi, replacing the glaring, unnatural golden glow with the soft tones of early morning under soft, dark clouds. At the edges of the field around the blind-woman, the golden glow was still coruscating, trying to get in according to the will forcing it.

Sasuke blinked, the blinded-woman seemed only to be breathing deeply, but outward from her seemed to radiate a soothing coolness that washed over him like a refreshing blast of air to a suffocating soul.

Off to the side, the wash of purified chi broke the flow of hatred and rage that fed the Kyuubi's attempts to break free and the demonic chakra subsided, letting Naruto focus again on the fight outside his body.

Sasuke and Naruto moved up beside Ryoko, facing the priestess.

"You self-trained witch," Luta said, pushing into the region of darkness about Kodachi, pulling with her veins of golden energy that tried to eat away at the soothing shell. "You think you can beat me in my own domain?"

"That's what we're here for," Naruto said with a smirk as the three young fighters surged forward together, backed by several newly summoned Naruto clones.

The priestess tried to raise a wave of gold chi about herself to block the incoming shots from her attackers. But without the unnatural field of yang about her, the spectacular golden streams following her motions were shattered like glass before Ryoko's more focused channeling.

Systematically destroying the waves of golden chi as they appeared required Ryoko to be in grappling range rather than the boxing range she preferred to fight from. It meant that she wasn't quite fast enough to use the openings she created, the priestess's hands and limbs still had time to intercept her slightly less graceful movements in that range. However, that was not the point and Naruto and Sasuke were quick to catch on.

Without her chi to extend her blocks, the priestess had to depend only on direct parries, blocks and dodges. Even as insanely fast and strong as she was now, she couldn't take an offensive from all three fighters without receiving some blows.

After several rounds of battle, the Musk growled as she finally found an opening in Ryoko's form to punt the girl away. That action giving Luta Beia the opportunity to re-establish her defenses and likewise toss Naruto and Sasuke back.

All three landed easily with little harm some yards apart from both each other and the Musk, and they watched as, with a motion that seemed to represent a mountainous strain, she heaved the yang about her to rush into the region of yin held by Kodachi.

The blind-woman shuddered momentarily as the yang rolled over her, but otherwise seemed to stand straight and firm in contrast to the heaving, weary, golden glowing form of their adversary.

She was bleeding from many wounds that each would have been fatal if she hadn't been keeping herself fortified with the chi about her.

"Ha! You thought you'd beaten me, witch?" the priestess shouted, more a demon herself now. "In a moment the sun is finished rising, and the flow of yang available to me is twenty fold what it has been to now. Enough chi to heal these pricks. Enough chi to move with the speed of thought and the strength of a volcano. In this place, I can destroy Saffron, much less you!"

Kodachi merely shook her head calmly, as if to say the woman was wrong.

Laughing the priestess turned toward Ryoko and the ninja.

"A blind, tongueless witch, a yin-balanced whelp, a demon-tainted brat and a half-apprenticed chi-adept," she taunted. "You think you can stop me when your jonin has already fled? You children?"

"S…sumimasen…" Ryoko said, moving forward carefully. "I…I wish you did not have to be defeated by…s..such pitiful opponents as…us, b..but we are what is here."

"Saotome…you'll die first!" the woman roared as she charged forward, hands extended like claws.

Ryoko prepared herself to defend, satisfied that her Buzzing of Hornets worked so well. Naruto and Sasuke each had clear openings on the woman's back now, as did Kodachi. And she could handle a round of attacks from the priestess.

She hoped.

Then she was being carried away from her position and deposited atop a building some yards away, the priestess below growling in frustration as she looked up at where Kakashi stood beside Ryoko.

"I don't think you could say I fled, miss," Kakashi said casually uncovering his left eye. "Sorry if it felt like that, but I had a job to do."

"And what could you have been doing all this time while leaving these brats to fight me?" the woman raged as she leaped away to another building to get away from Naruto and Sasuke's attack.

"I think that'll be obvious," Kakashi said casually as he leaped to the building the priestess perched on. "I think you all might be better to leave this fight to me from here."

Snarling the priestess charged in to attack the ninja. She slashed out with one knife hand to the throat, blocked as a kunai deflected the hard chi surrounding the hand. That was followed fractions of a second later by an elbow that was directed cleanly missed a dodging head, and then a hand stand kick that was caught solidly as the kunai slashed a line across her abdomen and she was pushed over the side of the building back to the ground.

Standing up and clutching at her stomach as she started to direct chi to heal and refresh her body, she backed away as Kakashi leaped down casually and then entered a stance.

"I see why she said your power was a fragile illusion," Kakashi said, provoking the woman into another string of fruitless attacks. "All that spectacular light show is what you can't control. Your 'power' telegraphs your intent, and it makes your speed and strength worthless."

As he spoke he blocked or evaded each of her strikes without giving up his position, ending the exchange with another unanswered kunai slash that dug deep into her arm pit.

The priestess backed away as she forcibly healed the wound, the more she fought, the more energy she had to use to repair herself. The more energy she needed, and the more that energy threatened to consume her. It was lucky she had a day after this to settle the vicious spiral down before night fell and her she was left with the damned flows of her domain drained.

Still, at the moment, she was almost as much chi as she was flesh. She should have been moving faster than any one opponent. Against the three brats, with Kodachi dampening the yang, she could understand her troubles. But in her element against this one man...and she couldn't return even one strike?

"I can do this all day, can you?" she asked bitterly.

"Probably but I don't have to," he said, blocking another exchange and focusing his chakra into his fist to shatter a wave of golden chi intending to block his strike.

The priestess stumbled back, trying to bend her nose back into position.

"And what makes you think you can outlast me?" she demanded.

A burst of fire further in the village drew her eyes as it was immediately followed by another.

"Oh, that," Kakashi said with a hidden smirk.

Luta Beia watched as each carefully crafted points of control in the area exploded one after another.

Every chi mirror.

Every physical channel.

With each small explosion she could feel the flows of yang diminishing around her.

And then the shrine exploded inward as smoke flew from almost everywhere in the village. Some few of her preparations were obviously still intact, but the network she had made over the last four years was ravaged.

Above her, the sound of thunder announced the last burst of chi as dark clouds flooded in above the village and yin returned in the form of a heavy downpour of rain.

"NOOOO!!!" the woman growled as she collapsed to her knees, seeming to whither before their eyes. "You haven't won, outsider! You still…can't have…your family…He doesn't exist anymore…and if you try to find Herb….your son suffers."

She tried to laugh at those last barbs, but soon her throat and body were nothing more than wet ash, washing away in the rain.

Naruto looked down at the pile and then looked toward the blind-woman, watching her clenched fists and watching her shuddering shoulders.

"Yo, Naruto, Sasuke," Kakashi said. "How many times do I have to say it. Let's get out of the rain."

****

"Where are you going now?" Kakashi asked Kodachi, sitting across from her in the inn as villagers filtered uneasily back into the buildings at the top of the hill for shelter.

The dark-haired woman shrugged.

Mokya was still at her house and there was no paper to write on anyway.

"Do you have any idea where your family is?"

The woman raised one finger and nodded, then raised a second finger and shook her head.

"I thought there were four people to your family," Kakashi said. "Your husband, sister-in-law and son."

Kodachi gestured for him to repeat himself.

"Husband…"

She raised one finger.

"…sister-in-law…"

The same finger stayed up, but no others were added.

"…and son."

A second finger was added to the first.

"Your husband and sister-in-law are…the same?" Kakashi asked.

This was followed by a nod.

"Do you know how to find the Musk lands?"

Another nod.

"Can you describe it?"

Another nod.

"Would you be interested in hiring a mission?" Kakashi wondered briefly if suggesting this was okay, but there certainly was at least one precedent for an exchange of services.

Kodachi turned toward him and pantomimed an empty purse.

"How are you at teaching?"

Kodachi straightened and cupped her chin in thought.

****

"So, Ryoko-chan," Naruto said, looking back over his shoulder. "You have a new chi-tutor."

"H..hai," Ryoko said, sighing. "I…I shall h..have no time for helping train Joseibi an..anymore."

She bit her lip.

"That wouldn't be my first concern," Sasuke said.

"Kodachi-sama says that you can be assured of achieving mastery of your chi in short order with her tutoring you," Mokya said behind them.

Said woman snapped briefly, drawing the girl's attention back that way.

"Hmm, Kodachi-sama? Oh..right," Mokya said as she took in the woman's gestures. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "For such is the wisdom of the Black Rose. OHHHH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!"

Mokya cleared her throat again.

"Is there anything else Kodachi-sama?" the girl asked in her normal soft voice.

Sasuke, Ryoko and Naruto blinked at the exchange and then turned back toward the march toward Konoha.

"Ano…" Ryoko sighed.

Kakashi smirked from his position following up the younger kids.

********************

********************

Author's Notes:

Okay, earlier, I was dissatisfied with this because I had to basically keep Kakashi out of it to make the battle an issue. I think the edit makes things a little more bearable.

As to Kakashi's fighting.

A) in the series, Kakashi generally matches his power to the fight. He doesn't go all out if he doesn't have to. In this case, his Taijutsu (rated at "better than Lee" in canon, at least by hear-say) is plenty.

B) most of the jutsu he does tend to use aren't all that useful for this situation. If he hadn't had to rescue Ryoko right at the beginning, he could have come in with a chidori and finished it, but, at it's development point in canon, that's a surprise tactic on a more or less unaware/unmobile target.

As for why Kodachi isn't up there:

A) she can't fight back accurately, defense is easy, the intent to attack her and how bends the flow of chi and she sees it coming well in advance. Since she hasn't attacked yet, no defensive intent is formed yet, so she can't predict how someone will defend. Since she also lacks the visual cues of how a person is standing or glancing, she has absolutely no idea. Basically, she gets from her chi a general sense of waiting and that's it. This will come up later when she trains Ryoko and has to explain point of fact that Ryoko would only be half-benefitted by sparring with her.

B) she's spent her past six years working on chi-sorcery not martial arts, in her prime she was never up to Kakashi's taijutsu, and she's far from her prime now, even if her skill in long-term chi-manipulation is higher than some of the Anything Goes Masters now.

The only reason Luta Beia (Rutabega being a good Musk name) was so spectacular in her powers was because she was making the chi flows do things unnaturally, she works against the flow rather than with it.

Kodachi, by contrast, is trying to re-establish the natural flows for the most part, or working with them, so there's only a visible sign at the edges of her effects.

As for how Luta was getting stronger, the flow of yang was increasing as day came closer, giving her more energy to do more effects with. She was also on the verge basically burning herself from the inside out. As long as she had yang, she could stave off the negative impacts on her body and the accumulated wounds while ramping up her physical capabilities.

At the end there, she probably could have handled all four of the people she was fighting physically, even though she'd been glowing like a beacon to Kodachi. However, they were the decoy anyway. Kakashi was the one that gave the death blow by putting explosives on the physical components of her chi-shaping effects and timing them to go off all at once instead of a little at a time, which would have alerted her and given her time to get away from the fight and protect some of her network. That wouldn't have saved her, but it would have prolonged the fight.

If they'd had Kodachi available to start, it probably would have been better for Kakashi to be in the decoy group and for Kodachi to do the sabotage, but since this is before Sasuke's sharingan is reliable, Kakashi was the only one to hunt down the various mirrors and other feng shui effects the priestess had to shape chi in the area.


	9. Epiphany

Kodachi thought hard about her new student. It was clear she was trained in the old Anything Goes school before it organized. Then there was her name, Ryoko Saotome. But the girl was too old to be Ranma-sama and Akane-sensei's daughter. She was twelve and ten years ago Ranma and Akane were only expecting their first child. And then there was Ryoko's descriptions of her father.

"I…I was taught by my father, K…Kodachi-sama. He is an exceptional teacher and a g…great martial artist. He w..was always there to help me and find g..great techniques for me to learn and he..he was always there to encourage me…"

That description might equate to Ranma if it weren't for both the age problem and the fact that the village elders said her father had tried to steal from the village, which would equate to Genma Saotome, of all unlikely possibilities, if it weren't for several factors.

First, Ryoko was far too versed in academic pursuits and not as sharp on her martial skills as she should have been.

Second, Kodachi had a hard time believing that Genma was brave enough to break his parole. Cowardice ran through his system with the force of an over-full bladder.

Third, the girl's attitude was all wrong for anyone trained by Genma.

Fourth, Kodachi thoroughly believed that Genma's first and only (in her mind) child had probably taken together all the potential of his wretched existence and wrung it out of him. As such, she thoroughly doubted his ability to reproduce.

Some had told Kodachi that her ability to understand people and situations sometimes had glaring blindspots, such as how long it took her to realize that Ranma had both male and female forms.

She had worked on that…to a degree.

Of course give the fact that some of her factors were still somewhat arbitrary opinions, it would have been apparent that some of her blind spots were still there.

There were some other factors as well. Though these operated unconsciously.

First, if Ryoko really were Ranma's sister, Kodachi would have to send a message to Ranma about the two girls.

That would mean Ranma would probably take over training Ryoko, which would give her nothing to bargain with in exchange for getting information about what the Musk did with her son.

And that would make it impossible to re-unite her family and get revenge on the Musk that tore them apart.

That could not be allowed.

Therefore, Ryoko cannot be Ranma's sister.

Out of these factors, passed through first Ryoko-vision and then Kodachi-vision, Kodachi came to the conclusion that Ryoko was the daughter of some student of Happosai's or Genma's that had taken Genma's name to artificially raise himself from the common herd.

Such was a common ploy for little, unexceptional people.

However, there was a way to test that.

She looked in front of her to where Ryoko sat waiting for instruction.

Kodachi finished writing her instructions out on the page in front of her, ink and paper filled with chi so that she could see it, and handed it to Mokya.

"I learned chi manipulation from my masters, Ranma and Akane Saotome," Mokya said, pausing as instructed in the writing.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, raising her hand. "Did you say Saotome?"

Kodachi nodded and gestured toward Ryoko, Mokya watching.

"Kodachi-sama wishes to know if you know her masters," the girl asked.

"No, I have n..not heard of s..such people," Ryoko said.

Kodachi gestured for Mokya to continue reading. Obviously, she was not part of the same Saotome family and Kodachi's conclusions were correct.

"Chi is not part of a person, a person is part of chi," Mokya continued reading. "It can fortify your body, extend your life and make you capable of amazing feats of physical ability. It can also drive you mad, turn you into a monster and destroy you. As you have seen. You must understand chi and understand its wants and patterns. Then you must change yourself to match them."

"Mokya-san," Ryoko said. "You read very well."

"Thank you, Ryoko-chan," Mokya said, reaching over to pat the younger girl on the head.

Kodachi tapped on the stone underneath her.

"Oh, right," Mokya said, clearing her throat. "Now, before we go much further, we need to work on your chi-blindness."

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "Chi-blindness?"

Kodachi stood up and gestured for Ryoko to do the same and for Mokya to come over. The blind woman gestured around Ryoko's head and then at Mokya with a thumb's up.

"She says your thoughts seem to be adapted clearly," Mokya said before following Kodachi pointing out several spots on the Saotome girl's body. "Oh, yes, yes. I see that. There are several places in your body where the chi is muddled. So I guess it isn't all getting to your brain."

"That's my chakra again," Ryoko said, depressed.

Kodachi seemed to consider that and then shrugged while nodding.

"She says maybe," Mokya translated still watching her mistress.

Kodachi pointed down the street toward a shopkeeper down the road from the park they were in. She held both her hands low. She pointed to herself and rose one hand higher than the other, the low one maybe five inches over where it had been for the shopkeeper. Then she covered one eye briefly and showed the hands opposite, the one going lower and the other going higher. Then she pointed at Ryoko and held both hands at a median level, one two-thirds as high as the other. And then she held one hand up and waved it indecisively

Ryoko understood that without waiting for the explanation that came from Mokya, both the shopkeeper's chi capacity and chakra coils were undeveloped and weak. Kodachi's chi capacity was high, but her chakra coils were higher than the shopkeepers, but less than a tenth of her chi-capacity. Kakashi was in the opposite situation. Ryoko meanwhile had large amounts of both chi capacity and chakra coils, and though her chi capacity was larger than her chakra coils, they were closer together than either of her two senseis.

The last gesture meant these were just estimates.

"But if it is chakra that is the problem?" Ryoko said. "How can I control the chi and the chakra at the same time?"

Kodachi whapped her lightly on the back of the head and moved to write something down for Mokya.

"Didn't you hear?" Mokya read. "We do not control chi, we channel it. We understand the circumstances that would cause chi to want the same things we do and we create those circumstances within ourselves."

"If it is all about controlling yourself," Ryoko said. "Why doesn't everybody use chi?"

Kodachi nodded and waved her hands in a circle, Mokya watched, recognizing the explanation.

"Everybody does use chi," she said, watching Kodachi move her hands to point to her own body. "Everybody uses chakra."

At this point Ryoko moved to her stack of paper and her pen again and started writing.

"Move, think, communicate," Mokya read. "Most people can do all these things, but most can't do them well."

****

Two dogs sat with their leashes tied to a post as three figures stood nearby.

Ryoko moved through the hand signs again, trying to follow the visualization instructions she'd gotten from Kakashi-sensei and the advice she'd gotten from her younger sister. It was incredibly different from what she was used to.

Chi was all about the world around, flowing from one state to the next and altering those flows to the best of your advantage. The chi within you was never the same, you could encourage it to swirl in greater and greater amounts through you and you could take matters to quickly replace what you just used, but you couldn't hold it long.

The Musk priestess was a perfect example of what would happen if you tried to make chi do what it didn't want to do.

Chakra was about herself and her own reserves, something she hadn't used before. At least not consciously. She had only some textual understanding of it herself. She knew that chakra was like a reservoir that built up in the body and stayed within. She knew that it was a combination of physical and spiritual energy.

Knew not understood.

All she understood for certain was that her chakra was apparently interfering with her chi. That the chakra was what made her a clumsy user of chi.

At the moment, she had closed her awareness to chi, like closing another set of eyes, so that she could focus on chakra instead. At least to try, unfortunately, she had had no luck noticing anything while concentrating on her hand signs yet.

Kakashi watched as Ryoko sat there growing more glum and frowned.

"She needs a breakthrough," Kakashi thought quietly.

Kakashi wasn't the only one watching Ryoko as she trained.

Sasuke paid very close attention to her moves.

He remembered that she'd said something about purging herself of one sort of chi or another to avoid certain effects. If he could learn how to do that much, he'd never have to worry about the problem he faced against the priestess again. Now, the question was whether or not to ask her about how to do it, or just watch her to see if he could figure out how.

"By the way," Kakashi said a bit louder. "Where's Naruto?"

The question heralded the sound of a commotion coming from around the next corner. Ryoko focused mostly on her hand signs, but Sasuke and Kakashi turned to look at the source of the noise.

Which meant that Sasuke had plenty of time to dodge out of the way before the large pack of dogs dragging along an almost airborne Naruto. Kakashi was already out of the path so he merely arched an eyebrow and watched.

"I think I felt something mov…" Ryoko thought to herself. "Ano…that is outside me…"

She turned around in time to see the dogs inches away from her.

"WAAAHHH!!!" she shouted as the dogs trampled over her and continued carrying Naruto into the distance.

Kakashi-sensei walked over to where Ryoko was sitting up dizzily.

"Are you okay?" he asked, thinking that she was usually much more aware of things happening around her.

"Itai," she muttered.

****

"I don't do much work on snakes, Anko," Hana said. "Besides, aren't your snakes summons?"

"There's a lot to be said for having a common snake around the house," Anko said. "For one thing, it makes for a lot fewer rats."

As the woman was poking around, she idly picked up a green and purple notebook and opened it up. Immediately her eyes widened and she started flipping through pages.

"Why Hana, I never knew," Anko said teasingly.

Hana turned around and noticed what was in Anko's hands.

"Oh, that's not mine," Hana said.

"'Subdued Bliss', 'Body of Serenity'," the semi-crazy special jonin read. "With notes on the differences between a male and female anatomy. Is your mother holding out on us?"

"I got that from one of the Academy Students," Hana said.

"The academy students," the snake-woman said. "This is a bit heavy stuff for eight year olds."

"It's mostly just massage techniques," Hana said defensively.

"Oh, you have read it," Anko noted. "Thinking of picking up a…significant other? Or two?"

"Anko," Hana said, flushing bright red.

"Besides, it's not the techniques," Anko said. "It's the implications written in between the lines."

"I've been meaning to talk to the girl that supposedly wrote them down," Hana said. "But as I heard she's been busy with training lately and I haven't wanted anybody else to get on her."

"Well, I can speak to her if you want," Anko said suggestively, smile wide.

"You're more likely to encourage her," Hana accused playfully.

"Come on, Hana," Anko said. "You don't think I'm the kind of woman that encourages kids going at it, do you?"

"Maybe not intentionally," Hana said, crossing her arms.

****

"I swear," Naruto said as the three walked back from giving their report to the hokage. "All we've done since we got back was walk dogs and weed gardens and stuff like that."

"And some of those you've messed up because you weren't paying attention," Sasuke said.

"Uzumaki-san tries very hard," Ryoko protested.

"Thank you Ryoko-chan," Naruto said.

"But you do ge…get reckless," Ryoko commented as she still tried her hand-signs, chi-senses closed as she did so.

"Ryoko-chan," Naruto said.

"How's your training with the blind woman going?" Sasuke asked, changing subjects.

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "It is going well…I think. But I feel…"

"You feel what?" Sasuke asked.

Ryoko said nothing, but Naruto thought he could guess.

When she was just taking the remedial classes in chakra generation, she had been a bit uncertain but still confident. However, ever since she'd come back from this last mission, Ryoko had been second guessing herself on a lot of her actions.

It was subtle, but Naruto had sparred against her enough to know the difference.

Naruto could guess why. That last mission, between Kodachi-sensei and that priestess, Ryoko had learned that she knew fatally little about her own set of skills and was essentially taking remedial classes in something she thought she was capable with.

In essence, she was feeling sort of like Naruto had been made to feel most of his life.

Stupid.

Naruto frowned at the problem and then something finally came to him.

"Excuse me," Naruto said. "I gotta go check something out."

Ryoko and Sasuke blinked as Naruto leaped off into the city.

"He does not want Ramen?" Ryoko asked confused as she pointed up the street toward the shop they always ate at.

"That is unusual," Sasuke agreed.

****

"Okay," Kurenai said to her genin. "That about covers everything then. Everybody is shaping up very well, everybody." And that last word was emphasized as she looked at Hinata.

"Thank you, Kurenai-sensei," Hinata said, bowing and blushing at once.

"So far there isn't anything we can't find," Kiba boasted loudly. "Isn't that right, Shino?"

"We have become quite skilled at reconnaissance," the quiet boy agreed.

"Okay, tomorrow you've got tomorrow's training regimen and you know where to meet for missions," Kurenai said. "So I guess that's…"

Naruto landed in the middle of the group.

"Ah, Hinata-chan, I need your help," Naruto declared grabbing her hand. "Kurenai-sensai do you mind if I borrow Hinata here?"

"Nee…nee…" Hinata started to say before everything turned black.

"Eh…oh, Hinata-chan! Hinata-chan!" she heard Naruto calling as all knowledge faded away.

****

Hinata came to sometime later with someone fanning her awake.

"Ah, Hinata," Kiba said. "Welcome back."

"Wh…what happened?" Hinata asked.

"Naruto showed up and you fainted," Kiba said. "He's talking to Kurenai-sensei now."

"What about?" Hinata asked.

"Ryoko Saotome," Shino said.

"So that's your concern," Kurenai said. "Have you talked to Kakashi about this? Or this Kodachi woman?"

"Umm, well, I just sort of thought of it now," Naruto said.

"I see," Kurenai said frowning. "I'd suggest you bring it up to them."

"Yeah, until then, can I talk to Hinata?" Naruto asked.

"Looks like she's awake and we're finished," Kurenai looked over to where Hinata was watching them. "I don't see why not. Hinata, do you mind if you help out Naruto with something?"

"Umm, no…" Hinata said shyly and pointing her fingers together. "What's going on?"

"Ryoko's having to take all this basic training," Naruto said. "And I think she's feeling kinda…weak."

"Ryoko-chan?" Hinata said. "She's amazing. Why would she feel weak?"

An image of that glowing priestess calling Ryoko "a half-apprenticed chi-adept."

"I don't know," Naruto said. "She's just not…I don't know…as enthused."

"Well," Hinata said. "I do have one idea."

She looked over at Kiba who blinked in confusion. Naruto turned to follow Hinata's gaze and found the same tattooed young Inuzuka, at which he flinched.

"No, no," he said waving his hands. "No sacrificial Kibas!"

****

"I need another week at least on that technique, I'm not ready for this yet," Kiba said to Akamaru, who was sitting on his head as he sat outside the Inuzuka home. "I can't believe they talked me into this."

"Who talked you into what?" Joseibi asked as she came outside to wait for her sister.

"Take a sniff, pup..err kit," Kiba said. "See if your nose can find them."

Joseibi frowned and rolled her eyes as she took a deep breath through her nose.

"I can smell…ramen?" she said. "And…medicine?"

"Naruto and Hinata, at least what's around them," Kiba said looking over at Joseibi. "Guess you can't smell them yet, but doing better, kit. Mom's got you working hard I guess."

"That still doesn't say what Naruto and Hinata talked you into," Joseibi said.

As she spoke, her sister appeared at the end of the street, working on hand-signs.

Joseibi started to stand up, but blinked as Kiba took a deep breath and beat her to it.

"Here goes," he said. "Are you ready Akamaru?"

The dog barked grimly.

Joseibi looked at him curiously wondering if he was psyching himself to ask Ryoko out or something.

Kiba stood up and started to walk forward.

"What's going on out here?" Hana asked as she walked out into the front of the house.

Joseibi merely shrugged.

"Hey, Saotome," Kiba said walking forward. "Do you still think you can beat me in a fight?"

Joseibi felt her seat slip out from under her as Kiba said that.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, eyes widening. "Is that a challenge?"

Kiba swallowed and then firmed himself up.

"Yes, that's a challenge," Kiba said.

"WAI!!!" Ryoko cried out cheerfully. "Wh…where's the closest training field?"

"We have one out back," Hana offered, blinking at the elder Saotome's attitude. "For the dogs, but it should be big enough. Naruto and Hinata can come in and watch too, if they want."

Two genin felt a sudden case of sweat as they stood up out of the benches and sheepishly walked over to join the group.

"Eh, heh," Naruto said. "So, shall we go watch?"

Ryoko practically danced toward the Inuzuka training areas. Kiba came behind her with Joseibi giving him a slight bow as he passed.

"What's the bow for, Joseibi-chan?" Hana asked.

"Respect for the departed," the blonde Saotome said.

****

"Wah!" Ryoko gasped as she dodged under Kiba's clawed swipes.

She rolled away from the other fighter coming to a standing position as the other Kiba sweeped in from behind straight into a reverse roundhouse that forced him to dodge.

The kicking hand swung downward, Ryoko's other leg arced upward into a crescent following her own line of force until it swept downward in a straightline axe directed at the Kiba that had just dodged her roundhouse.

The dog-ninja, or his clone, dodged back barely, leaving Ryoko to pound a small crater into the ground. Rising up from her landing, Ryoko snapped an elbow backwards, catching the first Kiba on the chin.

"Oh, sumimasen!" Ryoko gasped as she whirled about, another elbow catching that Kiba in the side as she did so. "Oh, I ..did not mean…"

"Why does she keep apologizing?" Hana asked.

"Haoto no Suzumebachi," Joseibi said.

"Buzzing of Hornets?" Hinata asked.

"Dad has a long lecture about keeping people off balance and unfocused," Joseibi said. "But it amounts to chattering during a fight."

"So that's a technique then?" Naruto said, confused.

"I guess," Joseibi said shrugging. "She's been trying to teach me a bit. She claims there's a lot of timing to it."

The bokken swung out, not very cleanly to the views of most of the ninja present.

"Sheesh, I don't get that stick," Naruto said. "Everytime I get rid of it she seems to get better."

Hinata and Joseibi remained suspiciously silent to that particular comment.

Ryoko twisted back carrying one of the Kibas over her head and back into the other, taking her sword with it, which dodged aside to let the one she'd thrown roll into the fall.

A look of desperation on their faces, Kiba and Akamaru looked at each other.

"Let's try it," he snapped.

As he called out, both Kibas leaped outward at Ryoko at once, spinning like a corkscrew. Ryoko leaped over the two and watched as Kiba and Akamaru landed on their hands and immediately leaped back into action, corkscrewing again.

On the sidelines, Hana shook her head. By Kiba's own admission, the Fang over Fang technique was unfinished. Now wasn't the time to be trying it out.

Ryoko blinked as the two came at her. The technique was interesting, but nothing tremendously dangerous, she set herself ready as they approached. The girl waited for them to come at her, and dodged aside. As soon as she had the pattern of their overall timing, she let the actions move from themselves to avoid her two opponents while she tried catch understanding of the chi flows about them.

Feeling the chi of an opponent was easy for her to do, something she fell back on instinctually. However, Kiba and Akamaru stayed within the range of her awareness only briefly each time they past giving her only a fragment of time to feel what was happening around them.

While waiting to get more information about their spin, unaware she was looking at a fraction of the power of the fully completed technique, she concentrated on readying herself for action, unaware that as she did so she was following recently gained habits.

One of her opponents was launching himself into the air at her when suddenly the world around seemed to awaken to host of sensations. Waves of energy all about her, like whole new spectrums of color and light. Something she had only ever seen once before, in that woman's shrine. Only this time, instead of just one glaring new color, there were whole new rainbows. Swirling about her in great currents.

Her eyes widened and body froze as she realized what she was seeing and part of what she was doing.

"Is that a hand sign?" Joseibi asked.

As for those watching were surprised to see Kiba and Akamaru plow into an unmoving Ryoko.

It was a bad hit, one which Ryoko hadn't prepared for at all.

"Ryoko-chan!" Naruto and Hinata shouted at once as they leaped to their feet.

"Oneesan!" Joseibi called out along with them.

Hana herself stood up and went inside for a first aid kit. She wasn't trained in dealing over much with the human body, but she had basic first aid knowledge.

Akamaru popped out of his transformation as Kiba stood up over the battered, unconscious form of Ryoko.

"What the hell," Kiba shouted. "It was like she just stopped fighting!"

"You were supposed to be helping cheer her up," Naruto said. "Not kill her."

"Well sorry if I don't feel like not trying to win," Kiba said.

"Her vital areas are okay," Hinata said as Hana came up to her side.

Ryoko started coming to in front of them.

"Hello, Ryoko-chan," Hana said. "Can you hear me?"

'Hai, Hana-san," Ryoko said dizzily.

Everybody blinked as the usually very formal girl used the given name of someone older than her.

"Okay, Ryoko-chan," Hana said cautiously. "Looks like you have a concussion, does anything hurt?"

Ryoko sat up woozily looked at her left arm hanging in a way that obviously spoke of being dislocated. Briefly she leaned forward and forcefully thrust her weight onto the arm before anybody could stop her. The arm snapped back into place in her joint, sending a visible shiver down her body.

"I see, control yourself," Ryoko said, smiling radiantly before passing out again.

"Okay," Hana said. "Kiba, go to the hospital."

"Right," Kiba said turning about quickly.

"I'm sorry, Joseibi-chan," Hinata said. "We didn't think this would happen."

Paradoxically, Joseibi seemed to be relaxing.

"She's been worse," she said. "She'll get better just fine."

"I was just going to say it looked like minor injuries," Hana said, eyes narrowing at Joseibi's addition that Ryoko had been injured worse.

****

Elsewhere, Sasuke was practicing on his own.

Sitting in meditation as he held a hand sign and focused.

It was obvious that chi was powerful with its own advantages and disadvantages. Still, it was something that his brother did not have and it could be useful.

In addition, he had a vulnerability right now. If they met another of these so called "false-masters" then they would be able incapacitate him again as that priestess had. Truly, he assumed that a similar situation could have been set up to incapacitate Naruto or Kakashi. In fact, Kodachi-Sensei had created one such effect in which he'd been free to act.

But if he could do like Ryoko did, and be able switch out one for the other, then he could avoid such problems in the future.

However, he wanted it his own secret. He didn't want to ask for direct training from either Kodachi or Ryoko, because then either of them would realize that he knew.

Instead, he had to learn how to observe them.

He already knew the physical reach of Kodachi's blind senses and the holes in her servant's awareness. That had been easy to determine on the trip back home. Now all he needed was a tool to more closely observe his two unwitting tutors.

A sound in the distance attracted his attention and he looked, opening his eyes to reveal red irises with black tear shapes within.

A moment after his eyes opened, the sharingan faded from his face.

He couldn't hold it yet, but he was getting better.

****

Some distance away, a nobleman was brought a message carried in on a messenger bird. Blinking he straightened himself and smiled as he took in the message.

"Chunin exams again," he said. "They're going to be in Konoha this time."

"Konoha," a woman's voice commented. "When will you be going?"

"I don't think I will be," the noble said. "I have issues I must attend to here at about the same time. Are you interested?"

"It sounds like it might be entertaining at least," the woman said. "And perhaps I can find a clue to my search."

"Then you're welcome to use my invitation," the man noted.

"Oh, thank you, Takeshi-san," the woman said with a polite bow.

"It's no problem," Takeshi said. "After all, you are part of the family, even if your name is Saotome now, Nodoka."

******

AN: Shutting off her chi awareness also shut off her awareness to chakra.

Ryoko isn't really certain just how she was thinking when she saw the chi flows around her. It was a momentary clarity stolen by the hit from the unfinished Fang over Fang. She'll take a bit of trial and error to hit that state again, but basically, she accidentally shifted her chakra in a way that cleared her chi flows and gave her mind access to all the information that was usually muddled un-usably for her.

Trivia: A running joke in the game Ryoko made her first appearance was her getting trampled by a pack of wild dogs…they even chased her up a light pole once.

Trivia: Ryoko was created sometime before I started writing my Tenchi-Ranma crossover: Ryoko Saotome. In fact, her name was the inspiration for the idea.


	10. Nomination

Sakura's day was just beginning as she walked down the street toward the hospital. It got brighter as she saw Sasuke coming down the street ahead of her.

She smiled brightly and waved as she approached.

"Hey, Sasuke-Kun!" she called out dancing up to him and smiling.

The handsome young ninja glowered at her as she approached in that cool, loner manner he had that had first attracted her and so many other girls. It was so cool they way he stood alone and didn't let anybody tell him what to do or how to act.

"Do you think you could help me with some training later on?" she asked hopefully.

"Why would I want to do that?" Sasuke asked bluntly.

Somewhat deflated by the boy's attitude, Sakura nevertheless forged ahead.

"Because you're good at a lot of jutsu and I thought you could…" she said, trying to hold onto her cheerful demeanor.

"Thought what, that I'd teach a pathetic loser who's not even a full genin?" Sasuke asked point blank. "I've got things to do."

He walked off, still in that affected cool manner he had and leaving Sakura behind him in his wake, staring and speechless.

****

"I like the hospital here," Ryoko said pleasantly as she walked through the lobby toward the street with Joseibi the next day. "They do not ask so many questions."

"Yeah, like ninja are more prone to frequent injury or something," Joseibi noted with characteristic sarcasm.

Ryoko paused as she considered that and nodded her head somewhat begrudgingly, almost the equivalent of a comeback from the elder Saotome.

They were almost out the door when Ryoko found herself faced with a small furry assailant. Unprepared for the wet tongue attack, the black-haired, bespectacled girl tumbled backwards to the lobby floor, wide-eyed and panicked.

"Waaa!"

"Hey, Saotome," a smirking sharp-fanged boy said as he pushed forward. "Good to see no permanent damage was done. Akamaru's happy to see you too."

"I..I see," Ryoko stammered, struggling to sit up and deflect the enthusiastic dog.

"I'm sorry, Ryoko-chan," Hinata said quietly. "Are you all right?"

"Hai," Ryoko said as she stood up and started to dust herself off and smooth her clothes out.

She hadn't gotten far on that when she was almost sent tumbling again due to the hearty slap on her back.

"Ah, she can take it," Naruto declared happily.

"Shouldn't you be prepared for stuff like that?" Joseibi asked as Ryoko tried to regain her normal posture and half-dignity.

"I am not keeping any of you from necessary errands, am I?" Ryoko asked hesitantly, ignoring her younger sister.

"Kurenai-sensai was called in to a meeting," Hinata explained.

"So was Kakashi," Naruto added as he looked about the hospital grounds. "So we've probably got all

day."

He sighed and shook his head, no sign of Sakura anywhere. He'd been hoping that he'd get to see her since she was apprenticing with the medical ninja until there was another team wanting a third ninja.

"Yeah," Kiba noted. "A whole day to do with whatever we want."

"Then perhaps it would be a good time for a rematch?" Ryoko asked.

"Yeah," Kiba noted. "Now would be a goo…wait, wha?"

"Wai!" Ryoko squealed happily as she started to look about for the nearest good sparring ground. "Imouto-chan please stay here and wait, I shall be right back."

"Isn't this how she got into the hospital in the first place," Kiba asked nobody in particular.

Joseibi shook her head and sighed before chasing after her elder sister.

"Onesan," the little blonde said shaking her head. "Rest for a day or two first!"

Kiba thought about turning around and going in the other direction, even started to do so, and then caught sight of Hinata and Naruto, both of him seemed to be staring at him with an expression that seemed to broadcast a shocked realization that he was about to duck out on the girl's challenge.

As if he were about to stand her up for a date or something after getting her worked up.

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, Kiba took off following Joseibi.

"Hey, Kit, wait up," he called out.

Meanwhile the thoughts running through Naruto and Hinata's heads had rather little to do with what Kiba's guilty imagination had convinced him of.

Naruto was still fuming that Sakura was nowhere to be seen and Hinata was slowly realizing that there were a lot fewer people around her and Naruto than there had originally been. The growing look of mixed wonder and dawning terror as she looked hopefully toward Kiba, not really sure what she was hoping.

Then Kiba went running off after the Saotomes and she was alone with Naruto.

"Well, that was short," Naruto noted. "Hey, Hinata, think we got time for some ramen before they start another match?"

And Hinata tipped backwards, eyes rolling back into her head.

"Hinata?!" Naruto gasped moving to catch before she hit the ground hard. "Hinata-chan, are you okay?"

The commotion attracted some attention from the hospital and quickly some adults were standing over the girl, calming down as they realized she just had a fainting spell, and Naruto was off to the side watching with a sort of worried nervousness.

The drama was momentarily derailed as Naruto noted a rather strange looking rock behind him: a perfectly square rock with eyeholes, to be precise.

****

Sasuke watched from well beyond the established safe-distance he'd found where the chi-sorceress could not detect him. At the moment, it didn't look like the woman was doing much, just sitting there calmly with her nearly ever-present assistant.

With each breath she let chi flow downward into her and outward in cool, even ripples. Everything about her seemed restful and calm, like a solitary slow-running pool of clean and cool water.

The woman took a deep breath and stood up evenly in the field, her assistant following the motion with closed eyes, and then came what Sasuke was looking for.

It came in a matter of breaths, yin flowing out and yang flowing as the flavor of the energy within the woman changed drastically from the cool stream of calm water into a surging focus of heat touched by an erratic pulse that shifted violently about her chi channels.

Heart beat, breaths, tiny muscle movements, Sasuke took note of them all as the woman tensed each of her muscles, ready for instant motion even as she merely stood there, hands still in front of her. The Uchiha heir and newly awakened sharingan focused entirely on the Black Rose and the changes within her system, not looking at all toward the woman's apprentice.

As such he failed to note that the erratic bursts present in the older woman's yang were not present in the younger.

Then something took his eyes away from the chi-adepts practicing. Glancing over his shoulder, he frowned as he saw a trio of ninja walking down the road half a mile away from his position. They were dressed oddly by Leaf standards, and, as one happened to turn his direction, he realized that they foreigners.

He frowned, what were foreign ninja doing in the village?

The Uchiha genius turned away from the subject of reconnaissance and left to investigate this strangeness, irritated that his national duty should interrupt his personal projects.

Soon after he left, Kodachi exhaled forcefully, rushing the majority of the yang out and replacing it, rather slowly in the nice sunny day, with yin. Leaving the remaining yang only vaguely perceptible in the stronger flow of yin.

"Mistress, are you okay?" Motya asked as the meditation came to an end.

Somewhat perfunctorily, the woman dismissed the younger girl's concern with a silent wave. An irritated and arrogant cast was held to the woman's demeanor for a time, but faded slowly as the yin continued to fill her. After some time, the woman once again waved to the younger girl, and rose her thumbs up with a much more friendly attitude.

"Your yang still is tainted, Mistress?" she asked.

Kodachi nodded with a sigh and shook her head. What should she expect given that she'd had to interrupt her cleansing exercises for six years? When she had such a perfect motivation for pursuing the quick and easy route of the Old School?

It would be so easy to give in and take the shortcuts, seek revenge rather justice. Fight out of her own pain and loss, driven by hatred rather than fighting for her family's lives and carried by love.

So easy to be like her brother and give up the battle in favor of the power.

She looked at Motya and cut her hand across sharply in a gesture she'd made several times before to the girl.

"You may not hold the rank of Master, but you remain my Mistress," Motya said with a smile as she had many times before.

And as she had done many times, Kodachi reached out to ruffle her hair, then frowned as she looked toward the side.

"Mistress Kodachi," a voice said. "The Hokage requests your presence for an announcement."

The woman frowned for a moment and then nodded, bowing politely before turning slightly toward Motya.

"Mistress Kodachi would be most pleased to attend to the Hokage's wishes," Motya said before clearing her throat and laughing shrilly.

****

Kiba was quickly able to catch up with Joseibi, looking to her for a moment with a friendly smile.

"Hey, Kit," he said. "You got her scent?"

"Umm," Joseibi said as she tried to do that.

"Okay," Kiba added without waiting. "I'll go catch up with her and tell her to wait up then, keep up, all right?"

"But…" Joseibi noted as the older boy and his dog charged on ahead of her. "Err, right."

He was soon out of sight, leaving Joseibi behind to try and use her half-trained nose to follow up behind him. She came to where he'd turned and found no sight of the ninja or his dog. Rolling her eyes she looked around to see where Ryoko might spot a good sparring ground and moved in that direction around a corner.

Running smack into the side of weirdo dressed in black pajamas with garish face paint, not like anybody she knew in the village.

"Hey Brat, that hurt," the young man said.

****

Konohamaru watched Hinata curiously as they walked away from the hospital and the nurses that had helped revive Hinata after her faint. Some of them gave the purple-haired girl some odd knowing winks and smiles as they left. The girl was strange, just as Naruto had said once, how she was so quiet and the way she stared.

Weird.

Naruto on the other hand seemed to take it into stride and not act like the odd behavior was anything out of the ordinary.

"Really, Boss," Konohamaru said. "You've gotten really cold recently."

"Yeah, you said that," Naruto said, rolling his eyes.

"You said you'd play ninja with us today," the young ninja-student protested.

"You said that too," Naruto responded, rolling his eyes. The younger Leaf resident crossed his arms and stared with a grimace. "Yeah, yeah, first we gotta watch out for a friend of ours."

"Who's that?" Konohamaru asked.

"He said 'ours'" Hinata thought quietly to herself with a flush.

Anything else that might have come was stopped as they turned a corner to find Joseibi Saotome being held off her feet by a ninja two or three years older than they were with a rather hostile expression on his face. Next to him was a somewhat older teenaged ninja watching on with a disapproving look on her face.

"What the hell do think you're doing?" Naruto demanded as he pressed forward, rolling up his sleeve.

Behind him, moving somewhat more hesitantly, was Hinata, readying herself hesitantly for a battle.

"I'm just teaching this little runt a lesson," the black-garbed face-painted ninja said turning toward them.

"I said I was sorry," the cursed blonde said with something less than sincerity. "So put me down, all right?"

"Look you, " the stranger snapped bitterly, interrupted in his speech as he moved to intercept Naruto's fist and shove the energetic ninja to the ground.

Almost immediately, Hinata was standing in front of where Naruto had fallen, standing in stance for the start of a fight.

"We're not here for this, Kankuro," the older blonde said tightly. "Quit getting us into trouble."

"These midgits started it," the other snapped, "and this one's getting her lesson."

He launched his fist out at Joseibi, who was in that moment dropping her façade of bravery and wincing in anticipation of being hit.

The fist never touched her and instead fell limply to his side, soon followed by the other arm, which released the young Saotome. He stared from that phenomena to the reason for it, the Hyuuga who'd just pulled back into her stance from that quick, simple attack.

"All right, Hinata!" Naruto shouted as he stood up and came to her side, pulling Joseibi behind him. "That was awesome!"

Joseibi stepped back and huddled into a small target behind the older Konoha shinobi.

Hinata flushed slightly, but remained focused on the two ninja in front of her.

The other strange-ninja snarled as she brought up her fan and unfurled it.

"Now you've done it," the fan-toting girl said with a narrowed pair of eyes.

"Stop it," a cold voice said, bringing the fan-girl to a stop as she looked up to see a young red-haired man looking down on them from his perch, hanging upside down from the tree. "This isn't what we're here for."

"But they attacked Kankuro," the girl said.

"Shut up," the boy said, dark circles standing out around his eyes implying that he had not had much sleep for a long while. "I'll kill you."

Naruto and Hinata both could feel the waves of killer intent radiating downward from the young boy.

Wincing, the blonde closed her fan again and put it behind her back.

"We're sorry," she said, looking briefly toward the Konoha ninja and back up to the red-head, "really sorry."

"Yeah," Kankuro said, sweating as he tried to get feeling back in his arms so he could pick up the wrapped bundle that had fallen off his back

The red head disappeared from his upside down perch and landed beside the other two strange ninja and emotionlessly picked up the fallen piece of equipment, thrusting it at the oldest of the three, the girl. Then the red-head turned toward the purple haired girl that had incapacitated his brother, he noted the characteristic violet, pupil-less eyes.

"A Hyuuga," he said, glancing again toward Kankuro and back to her. "What is your name, girl?"

"Uh…Hi…Hinata," she said nervously.

"Hinata of the Hyuga clan," he responded, "I see."

Quietly he turned away from her and started to walk away.

"Hey," Naruto called out. "What about me?"

"Not interested," the red-head said simply.

"You forgot to give your own name," another cold voice said, the owner smirking as he seemed to appear from nowhere standing behind the red-headed foreigner.

The foreign ninja turned his head slow to glance over his shoulder, even as his elder brother and sister looked at the Konoha ninja that had suddenly appeared in their midst. Though the sister looked more than a little flush rather than upset as she took in Sasuke's handsome appearance.

"Sasuke," Naruto growled quietly under his breath. "Damn show off."

"Gaara of the Desert," the redhead said simply. "And you?"

"Sasuke Uchiha," the smug looking genin said simply, keeping his back to Gaara.

Gaara nodded with a sour expression and then continued walking down the street, gesturing for the other two to follow. The Konoha shinobi watched them leave and waited until they were out of sight to release a held breath. Only Sasuke seemed unconcerned with watching them leave.

"Their head-protectors are from Sumagakure," Hinata noted. "What are foreign ninja doing in town?"

"Umm," Joseibi said. "Can we not mention this to Onesan? Another thing like this and she'll get paranoid."

"_Get_ paranoid?" Sasuke repeated with an arched eyebrow.

****

"You've all been assembled for one reason," the Hokage said to the gathered ninja. "And it should be obvious from the members here."

The thought carried through most of those present: the chunin exam.

Things progressed from there until it was time for candidates to be presented.

Two of the jonin in charge of new genin teams presented their students as candidates, to the shock of some of those present, until Kakashi stepped forward.

"The Kakashi-led Team 7, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki," Kakashi said. "Under the name of Hatake Kakashi, I nominate them to take the chunin selection exam. However, we have a…complication."

"Ryoko Saotome," Hokage said. "Yes, a resident but not a ninja, yet a definite member of her team. I am aware of the situation and there has already been some discussion on this point."

He gestured toward an entrance into the room as a woman with long, black hair was led into the room and shown to a seat by the young girl at her side.

Kakashi nodded in respect as she entered.

The others present, many of whom weren't yet aware of who or what the blind woman exactly was, looked on in a bit of confusion. Silently the woman patted her assistant on the shoulder and waited as her words were spoken through the younger one.

"This woman is a member of the same school of fighting of which Ryoko is also a student," the Hokage explained. "I believe she has a rank somewhat equivalent to a special jonin in our own system. She has assured me that there is no conflict in her own schools rules to block her participation. Is that not so?"

The dark-haired woman patted her assistant lightly and nodded.

"Indeed, Hokage-sama," Mokya said nervously. "My mistress notes that Ryoko has promised an exchange of service for service and a promise of such nature is held in high regard by our school. In addition, it is against the way of the school to turn down a worthy challenge."

"As for our own laws," the Hokage said. "All the villages have, in the past, sponsored outsiders in the exams."

Especially when trying to gather useful new skills more permanently into the village, was the unspoken thought crossing most of the minds that heard that explanation.

"The chunin exam is as much a display of our power for the merchants and other nations," the Hokage continued. "For the moment that should include Ryoko Saotome, she shall be given the opportunity to compete with her team."

Kakashi nodded satisfaction at that.

Only Iruka still had any protest and it was based on the age of the contestants, a complaint that was quickly argued down by Kakashi and issues moved on toward matters of security.

****

Kiba and Ryoko landed from another exchange in their rematch. Once again, Kiba and Akamaru were finding themselves forced toward more and more desperate actions by Ryoko's superior understanding of hand to hand combat.

This time, in the middle of town, fang over fang was definitely out. Even if he wasn't worried about clocking Ryoko again, something he wasn't sure would be possible.

Occasionally, they'd land apart for a moment to catch their breaths and wonder where the rest of their group was, and then the fight would start again, the moment passing in the blink of an eye. They were atop a large roof-top, out of the sight of most of the pedestrians below and even most of the ninja, though likely they were giving an ANBU or two a show of young warriors basically at play.

On one such momentary break, Ryoko turned to look toward the street and then leaped back into the fight again. She was still half-way looking that way as rose up, and turned her face toward the approach of her opponent. As she did so, she caught a glimpse of a tall figure with red-hair tightly done up in a bun and carrying a wrapped bundle on the back.

The image blazoned itself on her eye and she quickly turned her head back to see if it had been real, but the angle was wrong now.

Besides she was unconscious in the next second anyway.

****

Sakura had taken to the roofs for the moment to avoid people's eyes for the time being as she tried to process her recent conversation with Sasuke. He couldn't have meant what he said to her, could he. This or the other time when he'd defended her beratement of Naruto.

"Pathetic loser," she repeated. "It wasn't my fault my teammates weren't able to pass the test."

She stopped in her rather shallow introspection and saw what looked like that scaredy cat outsider getting clocked clean by Kiba Inuzuka.

Gasping in shock at the site, Sakura rushed out to catch the senseless girl before she landed in a decidedly bad angle. Not having actually seen Ryoko's full skill in battle, Sakura turned an aghast expression on Kiba, ignoring his own somewhat ragged and bruised appearance.

"What are you thinking striking out at a defenseless girl like that?" Sakura demanded as Kiba came to her side.

"I didn't think I'd actually hit her," Kiba noted quickly in his own defense, supported by a quick bark from Akumaru as the dog came up beside his partner.

"What do you mean you didn't think you'd hit her?" Sakura said as she started applying her lessons in first aid. "You're a ninja right?"

"Yes, but…" Kiba tried to protest.

"And she's not a ninja, right?" Sakura snapped.

"Yeah, but…" Kiba continued.

"Seriously, wasn't she just in the hospital yesterday for a concussion and dislocated shoulder?" Sakura demanded. "Was that your fault as well?"

"Well, I didn't…" Kiba tried to explain.

"You're just a brutal bully aren't you?" Sakura snapped. "Now, I'm taking her back to hospital and I'll be keeping an eye on you."

Her finger waggled threateningly at Kiba before she stooped down to carefully take the small unconscious Saotome onto her back and then leaped forward. In her wake Kiba was still sputtering.

"But I was losing," he said weakly before turning to look toward Akumaru. "How did I beat her this time?"

Akumaru whined in confusion with a canine shrug.

Meanwhile Sakura carried the unconscious girl forward swiftly and landed in front of the hospital to the side.

It was only as she did so that it occurred to her that she was carrying a rival for Sasuke's affections to the hospital. She hesitated a moment outside the door, considering that and feeling dark thoughts creep into the back of her mind.

Thoughts of just leaving the girl where she was and going, after all the injury was not great, why should she put herself out.

There were, perhaps, darker thoughts working to make themselves conscious, but Sakura's basic gentle nature kept those forced away.

Then the hospital staff was there and it the dark thoughts fled away now that there was no opportunity to do anything.

****

Ryoko woke up later and found herself staring at the ceiling of the hospital again.

"Ano…" she said quietly.

That had been an odd dream.

"Oh good," the nurse in the room said. "Now, when we discharge you this time, we expect you to wait at least a few days before coming back."

"Back?" Ryoko said confused.

"Yes," the nurse said. "We let you out this morning and you were back by the afternoon, unconscious again. The medical ninja will have quite a lot to say to you about activity after a recent concussion."

Sitting up in confusion, Ryoko looked around and tried to figure out what had happened and how she had managed to lose that spar so completely. That and the feeling that there was something she needed to remember, something important that had been driven out by that last hit.

Sakura watched from outside the room, feeling more than a little guilty at what was running through her head only moments before the hospital's medical ninja had taken the girl into the building. She'd never let her rivalry with Ino take her to such thoughts, so why now with this outsider girl?

She crossed her arms and then stalked away, trying not to think about it.

****

"Okay, Ryoko leaving the hospital, take two," Naruto said shaking his head.

It was just him this time, with Kiba and Hinata meeting with their jonin and Joseibi in school. Sasuke should have been there to make getting to their own meeting with Kakashi on time together that much easier, but Sasuke was doing his own thing recently.

At least, this time they got out and to where they were going with no incident. They even had some time to grab some food on the way, Naruto's treat despite Ryoko's protests that she didn't want to be coddled, she didn't make mention of her normal plan to steal the food fair and square anyway.

Nor did she realize that the guilt was for nearly letting Joseibi get hurt the day before, an event that the younger Saotome still insisted not reach her sister's ears.

"You're late," Sasuke noted when they finally met at the bridge they were to meet Kakashi at.

"G…gomen na..nasai," Ryoko said swiftly.

"Oh cut it out, Ryoko-chan," Naruto said. "We're not late an Sasuke-teme knows it."

Sasuke snorted bitterly and the three set about waiting for Kakashi to make his normal appearance. Ryoko taking her normal seiza on the hard rock of the bridge to the complete and repeated bafflement of her teammates.

Predictably it was sometime after Naruto started shouting out about how stupid it was that their mentor couldn't be there on time.

"Sorry," Kakashi said coolly as he entered. "I got lost on the road of life."

"Could you quit lying like that and just tell us what the mission is?" Naruto demanded. "Are we planting a garden."

"Not today, no," Kakashi said. "Today I'm just going to tell you that I've nominated the three of you for the chunin selection exam."


	11. Challenge

Sasuke looked toward Kakashi with sheer surprise on his face and then growing comprehension as he realized that this would give him a chance to fight some very capable people. It was a chance to test his growing skills against some worthy foes. In fact, this might just explain what those Suna shinobi were doing in town.

Next to him, Naruto looked a bit perplexed as he tried to take in what that meant, but was also very obviously trying to hide the fact that he quite obviously didn't know exactly what the situation was.

Kakashi and Sasuke turned to look at him with expressions ranging from the disbelieving to the disgusted.

"Ano?" Ryoko said, inadvertently coming to Naruto's rescue. "What is the chunin exam?"

"It is an event that happens twice a year," Kakashi explained. "When the shinobi of various countries come together to test their outstanding genin and see who is worthy to promote to chunin status."

Ryoko nodded in understanding but still looked a bit confused. Behind her, Naruto was starting to figure things out and the stars were slowly growing in his eyes.

"Oh, so this is for Naruto and Sasuke then," Ryoko noted understandably.

"You also have the chance to participate," Kakashi said.

"Ano?"

Sasuke also looked a bit doubtful at that comment and looked toward Ryoko curiously.

"Why shouldn't she?" Naruto asked. "She's part of our team."

As the hyperactive genin spoke he stepped forward to slap the girl companionably on the back almost sending Ryoko spilling forward onto her face.

Kakashi and Sasuke watched as the martial artist was nearly floored with the simple friendly hit.

"Obviously her performance has been something of a fluke so far," Sasuke thought.

Kakashi thought back toward over his interactions with both Kodachi and Ryoko and how they fought. Every movement replayed briefly and he noted the pattern.

"Intent," he thought. "They read intent through their chi sense. Naruto lacked a hostile intent and surprised her."

"Ano," Ryoko said nervously as she straightened herself.

"Err, sorry, Ryoko," Naruto said in embarrassment.

"Well, anyway, this is just a nomination, taking it will be up to you," Kakashi said. "Those that wish to participate need to bring those applications to room 301 at the academy tomorrow, at 3:00pm. That's all."

And with that, he vanished into thin air, leaving merely a tracery of smoke in his wake.

"To…tomorrow?" Ryoko said. "That leaves little time to prepare."

"Ah, we're fine," Naruto said, waving off the concern before fading off completely into dreams of victory and Hokage-hood."

"Hai," Ryoko said. "There's still almost twenty-nine hours until we need to be there."

"It'd probably be best not to come too tired," Sasuke warned her.

"I shall be fine," Ryoko promised. "There's not time to prepare anything much."

Sasuke nodded at her statement, accepting that Ryoko would be careful before he left for his own home. That left Ryoko alone with Naruto, who was still mostly imbedded in his dreams of being a future hokage.

"Though I do know where there's a snake pit in one of the unused practice fields," Ryoko noted.

****

"I understand that your sensei has nominated your team for the chunin exam," Hiashi Hyuuga said neutrally to his daughter as she silently prepared tea for the morning workout he held regularly with his nephew.

"H…hai," Hinata said nervously, drawing a trace of irritation that Hiashi kept hidden below the surface.

He found it hard to believe that the girl had done much to deserve the nomination, her lack of willpower and confidence always prevented her from reaching her potential. More than likely she was merely included because teams were required to join as a unit.

"Do not fail your teammates in this," he warned her seriously. "You can fail yourself as much as you want as long as you don't bring others down with you."

"I…I will not let any of my teammates down, father," she ascertained quietly.

Nodding at that, though doubting she held the backbone to carry through the promise, he turned back to his preparations as Neji came into the courtyard, glowering.

"Be sure to pay close attention to this morning's exercise," Hiashi instructed her.

"Hai," Hinata noted.

****

"The Chunin Exam, eh?" Kiba's mother asked curiously. "At your age, that'll be something to show those high minded noble clans a thing or two won't it?"

"Yeah," Kiba said with a fangy smile only moderately subdued by his mother's overwhelming presence. "I'll come out on top for certain, and we'll see what they think when an Inuzuka hits Chunin months after graduating."

Tsume smiled broadly and clapped her son on the shoulder firmly.

"How's your pack?" she asked. "You've got an Aburame and they're great packmates, but is that Hyuuga girl still scared speechless half the time?"

"Hinata'll do what she needs to do, don't worry about that," Kiba said. "There's more bite than bark to her."

"There'd almost have to be," Tsume said with a snicker. "Still, you aren't the only one with a wallflower to deal with, Kakashi's team has that Saotome girl. Not even a proper ninja herself."

"She'll be trouble," Kiba said a bit more seriously.

"Why's that?" Tsume asked. "I hear you beat her pretty handily."

"Twice," Kiba said. "Out of luck, she's looking for a rematch I think."

"Huh, didn't think she had the backbone to get angry over something like that," the older woman said.

"Ryoko's not angry," Kiba said. "She's…It's like the first time Akamaru discovered bones."

"Can't get enough of my boy, can she?" Tsume asked with a teasing snicker as Kiba flushed moderately red.

****

Naruto's preparation for the next day was semi-feverish in terms of energy and effort, but undirected and unfocused.

He practiced every seal he knew, sparred his kage bunshin, challenged himself to sneak past any adult he saw and otherwise honed what he knew of each ninja talent whenever said opportunity came up. If he didn't find an opportunity, he tried to make anything he did into an opportunity to practice.

He was both excited and exciteable, and, without any clue as to what might be tested, he tried to practice everything rather than focusing on one coherent, concrete trait in which he might gain some advancement by the next day.

If he'd tried doing such with his Kage Bunshin, he might have had some chance at improving several skills at least slightly, but he wasn't yet aware of the way information was spread between his clones yet.

Ryoko hadn't told him, most likely assuming he already knew, and Kakashi had kept quite on the matter as well, for reasons of his own.

In the end, perhaps the firmest benefit he acquired was a very firm feeling of being prepared and psyched up for the coming challenges, his normal indomitable spirit fanned higher than ever by his scattered preparations.

"All right!" Naruto declared. "This is just the next step to being Hokage!"

It was easy to dismiss Naruto's predominately improvised training methods and rampant, naïve dreams as a sign of someone with only limited intelligence. It was very easy to overlook the creativity and the effort involved.

It was even more difficult to equate the cheerfulness with a supreme willpower. So often, people assumed that anybody who was happy and cheerful was also stupid.

Obviously, if someone was happy in the midst of a terrible situation, then they were merely incapable of understanding that situation.

Somewhere in the midst of his preparations, Naruto caught a glimpse of pink hair striding down the road ahead and eagerly shifted his path to land at the side of the girl he still considered the most beautiful in the village.

"Sakura-chan! How's it going?" he asked.

"Naruto," the girl growled. "Leave me alone."

Naruto slowed down a bit and then tried to press on.

"Did you hear? Kakashi-sensei nominated my team for the chunin exams," the blonde genin declared proudly.

Sakura froze and turned toward Naruto at that statement.

"Your team?" she asked. "Your whole team? Including…her?"

"You mean Ryoko?" he asked. "Yeah, of course her. So?"

"So?" Sakura repeated in disbelief. "So she's NOT a shinobi!"

"Hey, Ryoko's awesome," Naruto protested. "You should see her fight sometime. It's like watching everything in fast forward. She's better at taijutsu than Sasuke is!"

"Oh please," Sakura said. "She's a spineless scaredy cat that's been in the hospital twice with a concussion from trying to spar that dog-boy. There's no way that…that girl could be better than Sasuke at anything."

"Come on, Sakura, you don't mean that," Naruto said. "She really is very good. I mean, Sasuke's really good," he sounded a bit bitter as he admitted that, "and he can do stuff with ninjutsu that Ryoko can't, just like my clones, but if it comes to straight fighting skill, she's the best in the team."

"Quit being an idiot," Sakura said. "You're probably the one giving her the stupid ideas that she can spar any reliably trained shinobi."

She twisted her chin up and stomped down the street and this time Naruto didn't follow, standing back, perplexed.

*****

Sitting alone, Sasuke focused on his Sharingan, stretching the time that he could hold it usefully longer and longer.

It was this, his newest skill, that he focused almost all his scant time on, trying to bring it up to a level useful in battle and other circumstances. Trying to achieve the most basic level of mastery in the quickest time possible.

They would see he was a true heir of Uchiha bloodline and worthy of the title of genius that was given to him by the outsiders that did not understand the work he'd put in to his achievements.

Genius.

The title was a mockery, a blind appellation given to him by people that had no concept of where he actually stood in comparison to other Uchihas.

Especially a particular Uchiha, whose sharingan was powerful beyond reckoning.

Sasuke did not feel he was a genius, but he would find a way to surpass his enemy somehow. He'd sworn to that. He would replenish his own clan and defeat the stain on their honor.

The man that had left him an orphan and sole survivor.

"I will kill him," Sasuke promised the empty lanes of the Uchiha compound.

A living ghost of the past.

****

Joseibi watched as Ryoko sat seiza in the middle of their room, practicing hand seals. She'd been in that position for a good three hours. The fox-cursed girl grimaced as she considered the discomfort that accompanied seiza for her even after only ten minutes.

By that time, her legs would start losing feeling, pins and needles growing along the surface of her skin, much longer and it would be difficult to even stand up.

But Ryoko could hold the position seemingly indefinitely.

Her elder sister had been practicing seiza since she was three years old at their mother's insistence. She'd said at one point that she started using it for body control practice soon after absorbing what Ryoko thought of as the prime concept of the family art: everything was training.

Recently, over the last four years or so, sometimes Ryoko just seemed to fade into the background while she was sitting seiza.

"When are we training today?" Joseibi asked.

She looked toward the kitchen counter and saw a familiar set of vials that sent a chill down her back. The last time she'd seen bottles like that was on their training trip with their father and Ryoko ended up with three serious snake-bites.

Ryoko looked up toward her in embarrassment.

"I do apologize, Imouto-chan," she said. "I…I am going to have to train properly tonight, I was thinking that if I could finish mastering the Ja Jin…"

"No!" Joseibi snapped loudly.

"Imouto-chan," the elder said patiently, "this chunin exam is supposed to be very challenging. I must be make sure my skills are properly honed. If not, I…I will not bring proper honor to our style."

"I don't care," Joseibi protested. "You promised you'd help me train!"

"I will, but I ha…" Ryoko started.

"If you don't help me train," Joseibi said, ignoring the look of shock her sister gave her at the somewhat unprecedented interruption. "I'm going to go talk to that blind lady and tell her you're practicing the Ja Jinku no Hebi. Didn't she say no training techniques you hadn't cleared with her or the one-eyed guy?"

Ryoko frowned and fidgeted nervously, vacillating between the personality that was her younger sister's caretaker, the training obsessive martial artist and the uncertain girl anxious to avoid bringing dishonor to herself.

"You promised," Joseibi repeated firmly.

Ryoko took a deep breath.

"Hai," she said finally.

****

Sakura stood stock still as she heard a rumor cross behind her. All three rookie teams were going to be put into the Chunin Exams. All three, including that…girl on Sasuke's team. The one that seemed so interested in HER Sasuke.

It wasn't fair.

The pink haired kunoichi had gotten the best marks of any of them on her exams in the whole graduating class of twenty-seven students. Then she had to be shuffled off to another group, one that failed the passing test, just because some the Village decided to put some outsider girl on a team for some experiment.

A girl with no real skill from what she'd seen and no backbone to boot.

That should be her on the team with Sasuke-kun. She would be a proper genin going on proper missions instead of sitting back, waiting for another graduating class and another chance at genin while studying the medical arts.

But then, what could she do about it?

She was stuck with the situation as it was.

After all, what could she do to fix the situation?

As she considered this against the coming darkness of the sunset, she turned a corner and saw one of the foreign genin teams come to test their skills. Sakura noted the headbands they wore but didn't recognize the device on them, some recently founded minor village probably.

Tomorrow they'd go into the chunin exams with everyone else.

Where she should be.

Still, what could she do about? It wasn't like she could sneak into the chunin exams or anything like that. Even given the training and researching she'd been doing since her failure.

It wasn't fair, last time she was the only one of her team to accomplish any of the objectives, and yet they failed her. Something about teamwork, she'd been a bit too distracted about the unfairness of being failed when she succeeded in the set conditions to catch everything.

Rather unlike her, but she had been having a rather bad day.

Getting told off by Sasuke immediately after it looked like he'd warmed to her.

Overhearing that outsider's plans of being Sasuke's mistress.

Almost being late to her team's meeting.

And then getting unfairly failed just because her teammates were morons.

It was the first of many such really bad days.

Days bad enough that they had her thinking of things she normally wouldn't have.

Bitterly she continued walking and started slowly walking up toward the steps of Konoha's library. She reached the foot of the steps and found her way blocked by an unfriendly looking chunin.

"Excuse me," she said. "I'd like to go through into the library."

"I'm afraid not Haruna-san," the chunin said firmly. "Your library privileges have been suspended."

"What?" she said.

"You can't expect to keep sneaking technique scrolls in and out without getting caught, girl," the chunin said.

"B…but," Sakura protested. "I didn't…"

"Consider yourself fortunate that you limited yourself to the genin stacks," the man repeated. "Otherwise you'd be looking at more permanent repercussions. Then again, if you tried anything more secure, you'd probably have gotten caught much earlier."

"This isn't fair!" Sakura protested.

"Kid, take my advice," he said. "Go home, take a breath and wait to be called on the matter. Your parents already turned over the scrolls you had in your room, so you don't need to come back. You've obviously got talent. Give it some time, you'll be a full shinobi and then you can get in here all you want."

Fuming, Sakura turned away and stomped down the street.

She should be a shinobi now!

Somehow, she'd prove it.

The girl froze half-way home and started considering carefully a rather ill-considered idea.

The genjutsu she'd used to get into the library's genin technique stacks wasn't strong enough alone to get her into anything with real security, but still.

"It could just work," she muttered. "I might just be able to slip in. Then I can prove to Sasuke-kun that I'm not a pathetic would be genin."

The pink-haired kunoichi student turned directions and picked up her pace as she started formulating a plan.

Above her, a slim figure wearing a Kusagakure headband watched her go. A moment ago it had been ignoring her, and then she'd let slip Sasuke's name.

Now, the slim figure smiled as slender fingers tapped out a sinister rhythm.

"I can make some small use of this."

****

Well before three o'clock came, the various jonin responsible for the genin applying to the chunin exam had started to filter into the lounge set aside for them to wait out the results of this first round of testing.

The first to arrive was the youngest jonin, Kurenai Yuuhi. Or at least she had thought she was the first to arrive. Instead she found a woman with long black hair covering her face like some sort of ghost and sitting next to a young teenaged girl.

She immediately recognized the chi-user from the earlier meeting and her assistant, and voice, Mokya.

"Oh, hello," she said. "I suppose it makes sense that you would be here as well. I am Kurenai Yuuhi and you're…what is the proper rank?"

"Mistress is an Iyoku Disciple within the Redeemed school," Mokya answered after a nod from Kodachi.

"How would that compare to the shinobi ranks," Kurenai asked. "If that's not considered prying into your school secrets."

Kodachi shook her head and reached forward with a bundle of paper and a pen, writing a quick note for Mokya.

"There is little the school considers outright secret," Mokya explained, she looked toward Kodachi and waited for cues. "There are five basic ranks. Student…Initiate…Disciple…Master…Grandmaster. Disciple is roughly equivalent to a jonin."

Kodachi nodded in confirmation of her assistant's explanation.

"I see," Kurenai noted. "A disciple of Iyoku. Will, ambition. Is that the most important virtue of the school?"

"The school credo consists of five virtues, with some disagreement over which is most important," Mokya explained. "Airen, Iyoku, Gimu, Fuki and Chikara. The leaders of the school have differences in training and philosophy leaning more toward one virtue or another. But all are required to advance"

"Compassion, will, responsibility, freedom and strength," Kurenai noted. "I assume each path is led by a grandmaster?"

Kodachi shook her head and raised a single finger.

"Only one master has so thoroughly mastered his own strengths and flaws," Mokya said reverently. "Accepted them all as a part of himself and balanced them completely."

"And which path is that?" Kurenai asked, curiously.

Kodachi let her hair fall back so that the ninja could see her amused smile underneath, but neither she nor Mokya gave any other indication.

After a good wait, Kurenai decided to press on.

"Do you carry a rank in the school?" she asked the young girl.

Before the girl could respond, the door opened into the room and another jonin entered into the room.

"Ah! Yuuhi-san!" a loud voice accompanied by blindingly white teeth declared. "I am impressed that you are here before all the rest of us. Surely you are finding closeness to the Power of Youth, and who is this with you?"

Under her covering of hair, Kodachi arched an eyebrow at the idea that this fellow seemed to not remember someone as distinctive as she had to be.

"Ah, Gai," Kurenai said hesitantly. "This is…"

Kodachi raised a hand politely in request for Kurenai to stop before gesturing to Mokya and pulling her fingers together as if holding a thin string and pulling along for some length. The teenager nodded and stood up clearing her throat.

"My Mistress is an Iyoku Disciple of the Redeemed School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, student to Master Akane Saotome, chi sorceress," the girl declared loudly in a shrill voice.

Kodachi briefly flinched as her own master's surname was given, having forgotten that was included in the long introduction.

Mokya continued as her mistress stood up and posed aristocratically, keeping her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"And wife to the rightful King Herb of the Ancient Dynasty of the Musk and mother to the rightful heir. She is Kodachi, the Black Rose. Ohh-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

The teenager cleared her throat again and turned toward Kodachi for the normal thumbs up given by her mistress, who also added a firm nod to the end of the spiel.

"And I am Mokya," the teenager continued humbly in her normal voice. "My mistress's voice, eyes and nurse."

"Indeed, the Power of Youth burns most impressively in you," Gai said to the girl.

"It is my Mistress's spirit," the girl said humbly. "I am merely the voice."

Kurenai, meanwhile sweated in embarrassment at having merely witnessed the exchange. In the doorway behind Gai, a newly arrived Asuma Sarutobi did likewise and seemed to be considering whether or not to enter the room with the apparent lunatics.

****

Naruto found Ryoko and Sasuke waiting for him to arrive before entering, Ryoko characteristically sitting in seiza. He waved genially and smiled at them.

"Hey! You guys all made it," he declared, waving at them. "Why didn't you go in with everyone else?"

"W..we were waiting for you, Uzumaki-san," Ryoko explained.

"You're cutting it close to the time," Sasuke added, noting the visible clock tower and the hands growing closer to the three.

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said. "So let's go and get this thing done."

"Hai!" Ryoko declared, moving smoothly from seiza to a standing position.

The three walked into the building amongst the other one hundred fifty genin and assorted odd chunin and special jonin involved in the exam. As they moved along, they found a small gathering of genin standing around outside of room that was marked as room 301.

Two shinobi that looked about sixteen or eighteen years old stood outside the doors blocking entry, kicking down a young genin in green spandex as he tried to pass them. Soon after, a girl in a pink tunic also tried to pass and was also knocked back to the floor.

"This is our kindness," one of the two declared. "All you lot see is the chance to get promoted, but you don't know what this test is like. Even we've failed it three times straight."

"People die in this test," the other continued. "Even worse, some give up being a shinobi altogether."

Kakashi's Team 7 reached the scene soon after the speech started and the three watched the two genin in the way carefully and politely.

"You think you kids are ready to handle the responsibility of a chunin?" the first asked. "Chunin are responsible for entire teams."

"Ano," Ryoko said meekly as she stepped forward and bowed. "Excuse me, might you let us pass please?"

Sasuke sighed as the Saotome girl moved ahead, apparently not noticing Sasuke was about to say something.

"Didn't you just hear us?" the second asked. "You're just going to fail."

"I…I do not mean to be a bother," Ryoko noted as she stepped forward, moving in a stutter step.

As Ryoko came closer, the bandaged one of the pair of struck out with a simple kick.

"Wah!" she gasped as she seemed to cringe past the kick.

The hand holding her bokken struck out in seeming reflex, which the bandaged genin easily dodged past.

"Oh! Su…sumimasen," she gasped. "I…I did n…wah!"

The bandaged bully tried to attack again, punching out as Ryoko ducked down to her knees, letting the punch swing high over her small frame. Almost immediately, the girl straightened into the torso of her attacker, pushing into his own momentum.

The chi of her attacker was confusing though, it felt too spread out, like it belonged to a larger body. She'd puzzle that out later however, for now she didn't need to worry about it. The attacker's chi was moving in one direction, she'd moved out of that direction and then moved in behind to shift her own chi into his momentum.

In the blink of an eye, the surprised shinboi was flying backwards through the air into his equally surprised partner.

"Su…sumima…masen," Ryoko said, bowing apologetically to the two young men tangled into each other. "But we r…really must pass."

That said she turned toward the door and started to push it open, disregarding the looks she was getting from the crowd.

"Ryoko," Sasuke said grimly. "This is the second floor."

"Ano?" the Saotome responded, pointing up toward the sign before looking up toward it herself to make sure she'd read it correctly.

"It's a genjutsu," Sasuke noted as the two bullies got to their feet and watched Ryoko standing their confused.

"So you noticed," one of them said as the 301 sign faded away into 201 for most of the people around the door.

"Ano?" Ryoko repeated, still looking at the sign above her head and blinking.

She was pointing and staring for several more seconds, still seeing 301, before her chi finally flushed itself completely of the illusion. At which point, her face flushed brightly and she hung her head, hunching her shoulders in embarrassment while orange fire slowly flickered into life in her eyes.

"Heh, I knew it all along," Naruto said proudly.

"Sumimasen," she said quietly, laying a shaking hand on the door next to her.

Then the girl quietly turned about and started to walk toward the stairwell. Naruto watched her, and took a couple of steps to catch up to her as Sasuke stayed behind smirking at the two false bullies.

"Hey," Naruto whispered comfortingly. "I really didn't notice you know, and you totally kicked their asses."

"Arigatou, Uzumaki-san," Ryoko said quietly nodding.

Behind them, three others were reacting to the situation, talking amongst themselves.

"Your suggestion to avoid attention was a good one," Neji said simply to Lee as the boy in the spandex watched Sasuke finally start to move off with his teammates. "We've gained some interesting information this way. Though I would like to know who that boy was."

"That's Sasuke Uchiha," Tenten said, blushing. "Ask any girl about him."

"Who was that girl?" Lee asked, frowning.

"I don't know," Tenten noted. "She wasn't wearing a headband though."

"My cousin has mentioned her," Neji noted. "She's the daughter of that thief that tried to steal techniques some time ago."

"Really?" Tenten said. "I hadn't thought she'd graduated yet."

"I'll meet you on the third floor," Lee said quickly, "I need to test something."

As Lee surged forward, few people noticed the pink-haired kunoichi keeping quietly out of the way of sight, praying her own genjutsu wouldn't be pierced and draw attention to her being there. Sakura followed the bulk of the crowd, the presence of which made the illusion that she belonged that much more effective, breathing a sigh of relief that she had escaped being noticed by any of the people that actually knew her.

Further along, the false bullies watched things from behind the doors to room 201.

"So that's the older Saotome girl," Kotetsu said rubbing at his shoulder where he'd slammed into his partner. "Dangerous clutz."

"I don't think those moves were an accident," Izumo corrected. "I'm more interested in Gai's kids though, they're being very sneaky."

"Hey, what's this?" the bandaged chunin asked looking up toward the front of the door.

Izumo, standing on the other side of the door in question, swung it open to look and saw the charred outline of what could have been a small handprint.

****

"Ano," Ryoko said as they came to the bottom of the flight of the stairs and looked around. "Wh..why did we come do..downstairs. Is the t…test n..not upstairs?"

Sasuke and Naruto paused to look at each other in consideration of that fact when a voice called out from above them.

"Hey!" Lee called out. "Black-haired girl and guy with the dark eyes…"

They looked up to see him standing on the flight above them and recognized the slightly older kid that had been kicked aside as they arrived. His injuries were gone now, however and he had a determined look in his eyes.

The young man jumped down to the ground and pointed forward.

"You, you're Sasuke Uchiha, right?" he asked. "And you're Ryoko Saotome?"

"Hai," Ryoko nodded with a respectful bow as Sasuke merely gave a curt nod.

"Gah! Ryoko too?! What do I have to do to get people to notice me?" Naruto privately wondered. "And what is with the eyebrows on this guy?"

"I am Rock Lee," the boy said. "I would like to fight you."

"Hey, what about me?" Naruto demanded stepping forward to meet Lee.

"I don't wish to fight you," Lee noted as Naruto rushed in.

The strikes came in with high speed, a speed that Naruto had seen before. He blinked in shock as he barely managed to raise a block and roll with the power of the hit, softening the blow enough for him to control his impromptu flight.

The hyperactive ninja rebounded off the wall and shot forward slipping a strike in which forced the green-clad fighter to shift his position before responding with another strike that sent Naruto stumbling far out of position.

Growling, Naruto recovered his balance and brought his hands together, starting a hand seal.

"This guy is just as fast as Ryoko and quite a bit stronger," he thought to himself. "This'll be tough."

"Get out of the way, Naruto," Sasuke snapped. "He was talking to me."

"And Ryoko," Naruto added hastily to the end of that statement.

"Ano," Ryoko said, blinking into stars. "Does he want to challenge us?"

"Yes," Lee said. "I have come to test my techniques against the Uchiha heir. But I also saw your fighting skill Saotome-san and would also like to test myself against you."

"Wai!" Ryoko said, jumping up off the ground excitedly. "I accept."

"She is certainly much filled with the Power of Youth, even the loud one named Naruto is stronger than I thought" Lee considered silently. "Truly a worthy adversary, but first I must test myself against the number one rookie."

He focused his gaze on Sasuke before politely turning toward Ryoko again.

"I've challenged Sasuke first," he noted.

"Oh…" Ryoko noted, deflating again somewhat. "I see."

Naruto, shifting somewhat out of stance wandered over to Ryoko's side and muttered to her quietly.

"Don't worry, you get used to it."

"Ano?" Ryoko responded, not really understanding what Naruto meant.

"Okay, so I was lying, it keeps being annoying," Naruto further explained.

"Ano?"

"There's no way you can beat me," Lee noted. "I am currently the strongest genin of the Leaf."

"We'll see about that," Sasuke said, smirking as he leaped into the attack, only to find himself easily countered within a few moves.

The first exchange was only mildly better than what Naruto accomplished, much to Sasuke's bitterness. Grimacing momentarily, Sasuke then smiled in a self-satisfied manner as his eyes shifted into a brilliant red with a pinwheel of black marks within.

"Sugoi!" Ryoko called out as she saw the eyes change colors, wondering what it meant for Sasuke's skills.

Sasuke ignored her and charged in again at Lee, determined to use the sharingan to puzzle out the secret behind Lee's technique. As the next series of exchanges carried on, it became obvious to Sasuke just what was behind Lee's power, and it was a discovery that shocked him completely.

The next exchange did not get much better, even through the sharingan eyes. Every high-speed kick and punch came flying past his face, just barely dodged. Each one without an accompanying burst of ninjutsu or genjutsu designed to fool his senses or give only the appearance of extreme speed.

The realization that she was fighting a man that used pure taijutsu slowly sank in and, as the monster slipped past his defenses and he was sent rocketing into the air: something he saw coming but couldn't move fast enough to prevent.

"That's right," Lee said as he leaped up behind Sasuke's floating form. "My techniques are pure taijutsu, and it doesn't matter how well your eyes can read my movements you can't keep ---."

Lee found his lecture interrupted when his audience was pulled out from in front of him.

Flipping out of his trajectory, he pulled himself to the ground and watched as Naruto landed with the still shocked Sasuke.

"You, why do you interrupt our match?" Lee demanded.

"Uzumaki-san," Ryoko said, in similar shock. "Th…that was very rude."

"Hey," Naruto protested. "We've got to go to the chunin exam in like ten minutes, Sasuke won't make it if he's unconscious."

At that statement, the mentioned genius snapped to his feet, angrily shrugging off Naruto and stalking away from the scene, fuming in shame at the poor performance he'd just given.

To be saved by Naruto, of all people.

"Whatever," he muttered bitterly. "Let's get to the test."

"I…I shall have to answer your challenge…another time," Ryoko said with much hesitation. "But, Uzumaki-san is right. W…we are out of time."

Lee looked up toward the clock and nodded with a grimace and took a deep breath.

"You are correct," he said. "I should also join my team. We'll test our techniques against each other some other time."

With that the small group separated and drifted up to the third floor.

"You're lucky, Lee," a voice said as the shinobi was about to vanish upstairs with Team 7. "I was about to send Gai-sensei a message that you were using that technique."

The busy-browed fighter flinched as he looked to the giant turtle that was the source of the voice and then nodded in acceptance.

"I am sorry, but I did not intend to use the other one," Lee noted.

****

"Ahh, you all three made it," Kakashi said as Naruto and Ryoko joined Sasuke at the entrance to the testing room. "Good, let's get started."

He shifted aside and gestured for the three to go past him.


	12. Risk

Naruto, Sasuke and Ryoko stepped through the doors and into room 301 and saw a small horde of ninja lounged out all over the place, many turned back to look at the most recent three to walk into the room. Several had a bitter look on their face as they took in the youth of the newest genin to join the examining set.

"Look at those brats," one of them muttered under his breath. "What makes them think they belong here?"

The pink-haired girl next to him grunted neutrally as she watched the newcomers herself with a mix of feelings. Especially as a blonde girl leaped out of the general crowd and latched onto Sasuke's back with a girlish cry.

"Sasuke-kun! You're late!" Ino shouted with a cute trill. "I haven't seen you for a long time so I've been waiting here in excitement!"

She looked over and saw both Naruto and Ryoko staring at her.

"Huh, what are you doing here?" Ino asked. "Still trying to get my Sasuke-kun and following him around?"

She stuck her tongue out at Ryoko childishly.

"Ano?" Ryoko said, confused and looking about as if trying to figure out what Ino was referring to.

"Are you guys taking this stupid test too?" a slow and weary sounding voice asked. "How troublesome. Try not to die."

They looked past Ino and saw a pair of other young genin walking up toward them. One was a bored and slender looking young man with black hair tied up in a sort of pineapple-ish style. The other was a chubby kid eating from a rapidly shrinking bag of chips.

Naruto recognized Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi as they approached.

"Oh, it's the idiot trio," he said quickly.

"Don't call us that," Shikamaru protested irritably before glancing over toward Ryoko curiously and arching an eyebrow.

He didn't have time to comment, however before someone else found them.

"Yahoo! Found you!" Kiba's voice called out loudly as Team 8 started moving forward to join them. "Looks like everyone's here."

"Hello," Hinata said shyly, putting her fingers together nervously.

"Hey, Hinata," Naruto called out. "Kiba, you guys here already?"

"Like that roadblock on the second floor stood a chance at us," Kiba declared proudly.

Ryoko winced and shuffled about on her feet as the dog-boy inadvertently reminded her of her near failure on the floor below.

Lee came in then, a bit behind Team 7 and moved quietly to join his own team as Sasuke, now without a clinging kunoichi, watched the older genin pass.

"So, all three of the rookie teams are in this, huh?" Kiba noted. "How about that?"

"You kids there," a soft, charming voice called out. "You should be more quiet."

They all turned about and watched a slim, silver-haired genin walking towards them, wearing his head-band across his brow. He seemed friendly and disarming, but at the same time he was lecturing them on proper behavior.

"You're all rookies from the academy, aren't you?" he asked. "Shouting like a bunch of school girls."

He shook his head in amused disapproval.

"Who the hell are you?" Sasuke demanded.

"I'm Kabuto," came the reply.

Sakura watched from her hiding spot amongst the crowd wiping off a sheen of sweat and wondering how much longer she could hold this genjutsu. A more nagging question was why such a delicate illusion had held so long.

Surely, out of all the Konoha shinobi she'd accidentally bumped into, somebody had to have seen her before, and as soon as that happened, it should have blown a whole in the simple illusion that she belonged where she was.

Consciously she simply assumed that she was much better than she gave herself credit for, but there was a layer beneath that that had expected to be caught in the attempt and sent back home to her parents. That part of her dearly wanted to go up to the proctors and say exactly who she was and what she had done, but the fear of being caught was greater than the desire for this stress to end.

She'd gotten herself stuck.

Meanwhile, Kabuto had just pointed out the angry faces staring at them.

Sakura noted that the Saotome girl had a predictable response, she stepped forward and bowed respectfully.

"S…sumimasen," she said. "W..we do not mean to be a bo…bother."

Growling one of the Amegakure shinobi stood up to tower over the little martial artist as the silver-haired genin had started to show his cards to the other rookies.

"Stuttering and shuffling about like that and you expect to take this exam?" he asked her.

"H..hai," Ryoko said, trying not to swallow.

"Yo, Ryoko," Naruto called out. "Try not to beat anyone up before the exam starts."

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly. "That might not be the best thing to say."

"H..Hai, Uzumaki-san," Ryoko noted nervously, before turning back to the incensed Amegakure shinobi. "Ano…p…please do not mind m..my teammate. I have no intention of st…starting anything. I already owe Lee-san a….a spar, s…so."

"You're saying that you can beat us up," the Amegakure shinobi demanded of Ryoko. "A little bit of nothing like you?"

"I am Ryoko Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts," she said. "I do n…not lose."

There was a curious amount of iron in her voice as she spoke the introduction, but then her manner shifted slightly and she added another comment.

"B…but, I d…do not be…believe th…that I am allowed…."

The foreigner growled in response to that and swung out his fist in a simple punch designed to teach Ryoko some manners. Instead, a timely bow, apologetically made, swept over her head. The snapped knee that followed, hoping to take advantage of the girl's head-down manner, swished past her head as it swung upward.

"Ryoko-chan!" Hinata called out.

Ryoko turned to look at Hinata with a swift and apologetic look as a vicious knife hand sailed past where her throat had been until she turned aside.

"Oh, Hyuuga-san," Ryoko said cheerfully, as she swung one of her hands out. "I was j…just trying to ex..explain we do n…not mean any insult."

Ryoko's swinging arm struck the overcommitted Amegakure in the back before his chi settled into a stationary place. Given more impetus, the man stumbled comically until he was stopped by a wall with no harm.

He turned to look at the twelve year-old girl that had just managed to thoroughly embarrass him, as was most of the room.

"Ano?" Ryoko said, glancing around and honestly trying to puzzle out what all the attention was for.

Sakura, from her place stared in outright shock as she tried to comprehend just how lucky the girl was to have avoided getting herself killed right then.

"That's great, Ryoko-chan!" Naruto declared as he stepped forward.

"B..but I was only trying to avoid…" Ryoko protested.

"Now it's my turn," Naruto shouted over her. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I'm not going to lose to any of you out there! You got that?!"

"That makes two idiots," Sakura thought as she watched Naruto through lidded eyes.

Sasuke was shaking his head in semi-disgust at the antics of his team members. Kiba was staring in semi-disbelief at Naruto while Shikamaru simply shook his head and muttered troublesome.

"You idiot!" Ino shouted, moving forward to grab Naruto and haul him back.

"I was only saying the truth," Naruto protested.

Kabuto watched with an amused look on his face, shaking his head at the antics even as his eye shifted slightly to take in Sasuke Uchiha's form. This was to be the Uchiha genius's test from more than one party.

Someone very powerful was interested in how Sasuke would perform for this event.

He was still watching Sasuke, and concealing it as the same sort of amused observation he had toward the other rookies, when Ryoko stepped away from the general crowd and started moving toward the back of the room. She passed between Sasuke and Kabuto, freezing in place for just a brief second as she did so.

Kabuto noted the oddity and frowned, wondering what that brief freezing meant, but he set it aside for the moment.

For her part, Ryoko swallowed nervously in the wake of that brief spike of heavy, murderous chi that she'd just walked through.

That had to be a mistake of some kind, she decided, especially since there was no one that looked like they were producing that sort of intent. There had been hardly any emotion to it at all, just a terrible sense of intent.

Before anything else could happen a great burst of smoke appeared at the front of the room. As it cleared, was revealed a small army of chunin in proctor uniforms. At their head was a scarred man who scanned the crowds of genin carefully, arching an eyebrow as he came to the stalled commotion in the back.

Ryoko recognized him from her and Joseibi's interviews a few years back.

"Everybody settle down," the scarred man commanded. "I'm Ibiki Morino, the examiner for the first test of the Chunin Selection Exam. Thanks for waiting. We'll start by assigning seating and then we'll get to the rules."

Inwardly he thought that the commotion was much quieter than he had expected it to be, usually the stress-induced confrontations didn't bring themselves to a self-conclusion.

Naruto glanced to the side as one of the chunin picked out a large stack of papers. Slowly what was coming dawned on him.

"A paper test!?"

****

Ibiki frowned as he scanned the room, he wandered close to one of the other proctors and talked to him quietly.

"Get a list of testing teams including photos," he said quietly.

"Something wrong?" the proctor asked quietly.

"There are one hundred fifty seven examinees," the interrogator said softly.

"That's a fairly good number, but what's the security issue?" the other asked.

"It's not divisible by three," Ibiki noted.

****

Naruto stared at his paper and tried not to freak out. At least not any worse than he was right now. Grimacing, he reached a hand up into his hair and rubbed hard, as if he could force the answers out of his head.

His eyes drifted from question to question, trying to find even one that he could begin to answer.

The first test was a cryptogram  
that made absolutely no sense to him as he stared at it. Then there was a question about parabolas and options of attack. He could give some rough explanation of what sort of tactics or strategies he could use, but then came the whole "show your work" part and he had no idea how to relate his ideas to math.

Following from that were other complex questions mixing a whole variety of fields and relating to in-the-field situations. Stuff like explaining what impact something that happened three hundred years ago had on an encounter now. Or which chemical would produce the necessary result needed to cover a last minute escape.

"What the hell does some old poem have to do with a ninja mission?" Naruto demanded within his erratic thoughts.

Beside him, Hinata watched with her eyebrows pulling together in a combination of affection and quiet concern for the boy sitting next to her.

****

Ryoko moved on from the first question, wondering if it was there as a sort of free-points question. She'd never quite realized that her ability to read most ciphers and coded technique scrolls: her own variation of the Saotome analytical ability.

The next one was math-oriented and completely beyond what her mother had taught her for basic home economics. She frowned slightly and moved on. Chemistry and physics were other topics unnecessary to a proper woman by Nodoka's standards. Politics fell into the same group, Ryoko only knew enough for polite conversation, never mind complex analysis.

The history and literature ones were a bit easier, but only just. Most of the classics mother had her read were rather boring. Only a couple of them had any battles or adventure whatsoever. It had been awhile before she'd discovered that there were numerous classics written around the past wars.

In the end, she felt that she had perhaps four questions with a decent answer and two she could make an attempt at. That left four that she had almost no clue where to start on, including the one that hadn't been revealed yet.

And she had no idea what sort of score she had to make to pass this test. If she could only be certain about four questions, then was she dooming her team to failure?

"Ano?"

She bit her lip nervously and held onto her pen nervously, a thin trail of smoke drifting up from it.

Next to her, a tired-looking red-haired sand-genin stared expressionlessly at his paper and then toward Ryoko, noting her skittish and nervous demeanor with a quiet sort of disdain that had most every other examinee near him swallowing nervously.

Only the dark-haired girl seemed to be more concerned with her performance on this paper test.

****

Sasuke likewise scanned over each of the questions and slowly came to a conclusion of his own.

"I see," he thought. "I can't answer any of these."

He looked over at the row of chunin with their prominent clipboards and smirking faces and grimaced.

"It's like they assume we're going to cheat," he thought to himself bitterly. "Bastards."

Still, only two points off for cheating, that's a pretty light penalty compared to what would happen on most tests if you got caught cheating. Why only two points off?

His mind drifted off toward the examiners instructions. Those pathetic enough to get caught would be eliminated. This wasn't a test of what they knew. This was a test of what they could discover. Of course the examiners expected them to cheat, they had to cheat to get the answers. It was just like being on an information assignment trying to get the intelligence past the guards.

That made things a bit easier.

He only hoped Naruto figured out, or Ryoko for that matter. She wasn't even a ninja, she wouldn't look at things in the same way.

****

Sakura huddled quietly as she focused entirely on answering her test questions, hoping against hope that nobody would notice her. At least she could answer most of the questions. All she had to do was not stand out and hope that Sasuke's team did just as well.

Suspiciously and guiltily, she watched as a proctor left the room after a brief conversation with the primary examiner. Things were getting very out of control, very fast. It was getting hard to concentrate on the questions.

She huddled in on herself and kept her head down, trying to think of a way to get herself out of this mess.

Luck turned in her favor.

The devil's luck at least.

****

Ino scanned about, looking for a target of her jutsu. If Sakura had been there, then she would have certainly targeted the huge-foreheaded girl. Instead, she had to look about for someone else the she could hope had the answers.

She'd prefer to wait for one smarty pants to finish writing and move into them, but as it stood, she'd probably have to make two or three trips, plus once each to Choji and Shikamaru, in order to get most of the answers to her team.

Scanning about, she saw the long black ponytail of that outsider scaredy cat and smiled. Most probably hadn't noticed, but she'd overheard enough of the girls talks with her younger sister to know that there was a working mind in that head. She'd at least get a good chunk of information from the girl.

Quietly, checking her sides to see if anybody was watching her, she formed the hand sign of her clan's special technique and shoved herself forward. Then she was pushing Ryoko's spirit back to make room for her own to take over.

In doing so, she burst open a door that been creaking open already.

A wave of fear, outright terror, washed over her as the long, drawn out sound of metal scraping against wood screamed dully into her ears…

…that she was flung out of the body backwards into her own.

Further ahead of her, her target's right hand erupted in orange flame that charred her pen to ashes, and then fell down to burn a hole through her desk before her own mind snapped forward and into control again.

"What's going on here?" Ibiki demanded as he strode forward to look at Ryoko.

The flames around her hand were not quite dying, but reduced to a smoldering shifting aura that released smoke that smelled vaguely of cooking meat. He scanned up the row to where the frantic Yamanaka was staring at the black-haired girl with open shock.

"Saotome," he said. "You're burning yourself."

"Su..sumimasen," Ryoko said swallowing fervently and trying desperately to finish putting out the fire that her fear had raised. "I…I…do not mean to cause a stir."

"That's fine," Ibiki said in carefully soothing manner. "Go get yourself some water and calm down, we don't need people showing off just now."

"H…hai," Ryoko said, standing up and walking off with the chunin proctor called over to escort her and hold her paper.

"What happened?" the chunin asked.

"The Yamanaka girl made a clumsy attempt at possession to get some answers," he responded. "Make sure to take two points off her score."

He didn't say anymore, the Saotome girl's supposed blood gift was a high-ranked secret. He couldn't just go around telling subordinates he thought the Yamanaka turned it on by accident. There was no telling who would hear. Still, he'd seen Kakashi's report on having witnessed the phenomena, not to mention having interrogated than man that had survived being the target.

This little outbreak was much more mild than the previous one.

"Hey, are they going to be okay?" Naruto called out.

"Don't worry about them," Ibiki noted. "They'll be back shortly enough."

"Well," he noted to the crowd. "I think you still have twenty five minutes left, or did you not want to pass this stage?"

The various examinees slowly looked away from the commotion and back to their papers as one of the proctors came up to Ibiki's side, now that he was back at the front of the room.

As she did, Ibiki turned to look at the Yamanaka and frowned as another chunin, the same who had gone to get the files on the entrants, was escorting her out to calm down as well. Frowning, Ibiki moved toward the files and leafed through them, looking about at the faces turned his way.

He couldn't find the one out of place, and that bothered him immensely.

****

Shikamaru frowned as he watched the interplay. There was no resisting Ino's technique, but there were dangers. Trying to possess someone suffering from severe injuries was near-suicidal as the technique would pass that pain along to the possessor.

He glanced toward the outsider girl as she left and then the hole and char marks her fire had left on the table.

"How troublesome," he muttered.

****

The same holes and marks were also being examined by Gaara, who narrowed his eyes in consideration. The chakra that had been leaking out of his testing neighbor's body was…intriguing. He felt his mother's spirit shift somewhat within him almost…eagerly.

It reminded him of the twinge he felt when his enemies minds were being destroyed by fear in realization of what facing him meant.

Mother always seemed to enjoy that.

****

Sakura looked up toward the scarred man standing right beside her and wanted desperately to stand up and say "I'm not supposed to be here" but the situation was getting too serious to back off now. She'd gotten herself in way over her head, and it still bothered her just why she was being so successful.

She set that aside for now and bent down nervously to her test.

****

Ino quickly caught her breath as she sat outside taking a drink of water at the fountain, a proctor watching her closely. The mind-numbing fear was fading away quickly and becoming nothing more than a memory. Still it was a rather jarring memory.

Everything had been going fine until she'd tried to shift Ryoko's consciousness into the back of the mind.

And now she wasn't going to have enough time to get anything done, and that left Choji and Shikamaru on their own. If she hadn't known better, then she would have accused the Saotome girl of having some sort of counter jutsu to her mind control abilities.

Or maybe she was just that scared all the time.

"Wow, she really is a scaredy cat," Ino muttered.

****

"Ano," Ryoko muttered shyly as she finished washing her burned hand.

"Are you all right?" the proctor asked her with a bit of curiosity to her voice. "Ah, that isn't more than a sunburn."

"Hai," Ryoko said. "I am just…up..upset I…well…"

"Speaking of that, what was that jutsu you used?" the proctor asked. "It didn't look like a normal katon jutsu."

"M..my father c…called it Kishu-Osore," Ryoko answered.

"I've never heard of that before," the proctor said. "I didn't think you used chakra."

"Father s..said it was an…'experiment'," Ryoko noted. "I…it is diffi..ficult to control…sometimes."

"I see," the ninja noted.

In fact, flame-bringing fears had been harder to hold back. Instead of one or two bursts every few months, she was starting to leave char marks at least twice a month. It had started when that man had tried to…hurt Joseibi.

Just thinking about that brought a firm warmth to her skin and she could almost see the limning orange flames and she immediately stopped that line of thinking. Last time, she started to imagine the criminals coming back to kill Joseibi, perhaps for revenge, and she'd burned one of her training outfits.

With a deep breath, she shoved the fear back away and straightened herself into a proper posture.

"I should be ready to continue now," Ryoko noted.

****

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly. "You can look at my paper if you want."

The blonde turned to look at the purple-haired kunoichi with a subtle twist. Very, very briefly he wondered if it was some sort of trap, but immediately dropped that idea down a very deep hole. No way would Hinata-chan ever try to trap him like that.

No, this was a very honest offer for help, but…

Naruto's eyes glanced over toward the proctors where they were eagerly waiting for someone to cheat. If he looked over and they saw, then he'd be getting Hinata in trouble as well. And with her in trouble, it would hurt Kiba too and…umm…the bug guy. And if he was sure they'd catch him if he tried.

He couldn't get someone else in trouble for his fault.

"Nah, thanks Hinata-chan," Naruto said. "I couldn't let you get in trouble. Someone like me doesn't need to cheat anyway."

"Are…are you sure?" Hinata asked quietly.

"Yeah," Naruto said, smirking, glancing back toward one of the proctors that was just eyeing him.

Across the room the chunin in question smirked at the situation.

"More clever than he looks I guess," he said to himself.

****

"Found our extra?" one of the proctors asked as they returned with Ryoko and Ino.

"No," Ibiki said.

"It's probably someone trying to run a distraction to keep us from noticing someone cheating," the proctor noted.

"That's possible," Ibiki said. "But something tells me otherwise."

He glanced up toward the clock and noted the time. The chunin exam was still on and it was time for the last question.

****

"What the heck is this nonsense about choosing to take the last question?"

Ryoko and Gaara both turned toward the whispering speaker and then the Sunagakure shinobi turned immediately away. The martial artist hesitated, biting her lip, but eventually turned back to listen to the rules herself.

She raised her hand shakily.

"Do you have a question, Saotome?" Ibiki asked with a cruel sarcasm meant to push her.

"I have a…co..concern," the girl noted. "Th…there is no r…risk for me in these rules. I..it is not fair."

Numerous eyes turned to face her in curiosity, all of them wondering why she would view the chance that she would never take the chunin exam again as no risk. Slowly, people began to notice the lack of a headband on her person showing her allegiance.

Gaara frowned as he realized that the girl was either not a shinobi, or was a wandering shinobi. A mercenary or some such that Konoha was appealing to for some reason. Across the room, his eldest sibling mumbled the thoughts he was considering.

"What's she got that makes them so interested?"

Meanwhile, Ibiki smiled darkly at Ryoko's statement.

"What if I were to say that if you were to fail this last question," Ibiki noted. "That you would have to leave here today…and leave everyone behind for the rest of your life? Does that make things fair?"

Ryoko paled beyond her normal light coloring at that pronouncement and bowed slowly as she sat back down into a posture perfect stance.

"H…hai," she whispered.

The genin next to her noted the orange flickering in her eyes with some concern as he glanced toward the holes in the table she'd burned through earlier.

"Now, who plans to take the question and who's giving it a wait?" Ibiki asked, and people started leaving in droves.

Ibiki stared as Ryoko sat there, continuing to just wait, he wasn't the only one.

"She's willing to risk never seeing her sister again for this?" Kiba wondered to himself curiously. "What the hell is this?"

Sasuke focused on the outsider girl, willing Ryoko not to give in to her skittishness and chicken out.

"He can't do that to her," Hinata thought, eyes wide. "Where would she go?"

"Damn it!" Naruto shouted as he stood up and planted his foot down on the table. "Don't underestimate me! I'm not going to run away like a coward! Even if I'm a genin forever, it doesn't matter. I'll will myself to become Hokage anyway. And then I'll get to decide who goes and who stays!"

Breathing heavily, he stepped back and sat back down glowering at the examiner.

"Are you sure?" Ibiki asked. "This is your life riding on this decision. This is your last chance to quit."

"I keep my promises," Naruto said simply.

"Good decisions," Ibiki said. "Now, to those that have chosen to take the tenth question, I congratulate you on passing the first test."

****

In the wake of the genin leaving to follow Anko Mitarashi to the site for the next test, Kiba caught up to Ryoko's side as Team 7 came together. The Inuzuka reached out and gripped the small girl's shoulder twisting her about with a strange, almost furious look on his face.

"What was that about?" he demanded.

"Ano?" Ryoko asked.

"Hey, back off Kiba," Naruto snapped. "This isn't time for a spar."

"Not now Ryoko, I'm talking to her. You were going to take some test you don't even get anything out of at the risk of abandoning your sister?!" he snapped. "I thought you cared about her. Is she your pack or not?"

"I would d…die for her," Ryoko said.

"Then why act like that?" Kiba said.

"Be…because taking the question was only a risk," Ryoko said. "Not ce..certainty. Sumimasen, we are losing the rest of the examinees."

Ryoko lowered her head and moved on to join the rest of the examinees ahead of them.

"Yo, Ryoko, wait up!" Naruto shouted. "Come on, let's get going."

Kiba held back a bit confused as first Naruto and then Hinata moved off after the Saotome. Only Sasuke seemed to hang back for a moment.

"I wonder if Kakashi was being literal when he told her not to be so quick to fall on her sword?" the Uchiha asked.

"What do you mean by that?" Kiba asked.

"Suddenly, I get the feeling she's more old-world fashioned than anybody else we know," Sasuke noted, reluctantly feeling a bit of a kinship with Ryoko as he started off towards the other ninja himself now.

"You're still talking nonsense," the Inuzuka yelled out.

"The boy's talking about seppuku," Ibiki said as he loomed over the two boys, a collection of tests in his hand.

"Eh, who'd kill themselves over this?"

Ibiki shook his head with a smirk.

"Lots of people, every year," he said softly.

Kiba stared out towards where Ryoko was vanishing with the rest of the crowd. The fact that, in Ryoko's mind, this was more than life and death started slowly coming into focus. For someone who lived on challenges as she did, even so skittish socially, to turn down a challenge out of a fear of failure?

"But that can't be all right," Kiba snapped. "Damn it!"

Ibiki watched as the Inuzuka chased after the crowd now, a determined look in his face. He'd long suspected Ryoko's samurai mindset based on what he'd heard from the girl's younger sister. Now that it was very much a certainty, the interrogator felt he could be excused for trying to take steps to…correct the situation.

Konoha law did not consider a belief in seppuku to be a psychological weakness, and the girl's status as essentially a mercenary meant that their only real recourse is to simply stop accepting her services. That would probably risk her choosing to do it anyway.

The Hokage had Ibiki's report on the elder Saotome's personality and despite the quirks and small flaws, Ibiki agreed the girl had potential. She just had to be handled carefully to make sure she reached that potential.

"Kishu-Osore," he mused, repeating the name of the girl's one apparent chakra technique based on what he'd received from one of the other proctors. "Fear-Rider. Wonder what that encompasses."

****

"Why didn't I leave when I had the chance?" Sakura wondered quietly as she hid amongst the other ninja.

And quietly, a devil smirked at his little decoy's oh so obvious worries.

*******

The first test of the chunin exam.

Yeah...I know, Ryoko is entering funny aneurysm status.

I want to do an interlude soon with Joseibi doing some assignments: operating in fox form.

I thought about having Sakura leave off at this point, but decided I'm going to want her in the Forest of Death.

As to the Kishu-Osore, for necessity, I need her to be near in power to the other big hitters in Naruto, but I don't think it has near the damage capability of a full manifested bijuu...not at all

might be equal to a jinchuriki, but then so is sharingan, apparently...


	13. Interlude: Fox Hunt

Hana smiled as the blonde Saotome girl walked up the path toward the Inuzuka complex. It was good for her to be getting out and about on her own a little bit more often. Ryoko was very protective, perhaps too much so, and she wasn't recognizing that Joseibi needed to stand on her own at times now.

"So, short classes today then, Joseibi?" she asked.

"Yeah," Joseibi said. "They're running the chunin exam at the school, so no ungraduated students allowed. Morino-sensei was there so…"

"So no getting away with spying," Hana said with a smirk.

Not that Joseibi really got as much spying past her instructors as she thought she did, but given the amount of extra instruction she was getting between the Inuzuka clan, her sister and what Hana suspected, judging by slips like "Morino-_sensei_", were occasional tutoring sessions with Ibiki Morino, it wasn't surprising that she'd get away with a little bit.

"Yeah," Joseibi said with a smirk. "So what's up today?"

"Have you been taking your pills?" Hana asked. "Both forms?"

"Yeah," the blonde said, shrugging. "I'm starting to get used to the taste. What are they for?"

"They're for acclimating both your bodies to the chakra of the other body," the vet explained. "It's why I take frequent blood samples from you."

Joseibi blinked and thought about that for a moment.

"You're feeding me my dried up blood?" she asked.

"More specifically, I'm feeding your fox form the blood of your human form and vice versa with a few other things," Hana said. "It's based on the techniques to acclimate our canine brothers and sisters to be ready to accept our chakra."

"Am I going to start growing fangs, beady eyes and red marks on my face then?" she asked pointedly.

"I don't think I have beady eyes," Hana protested.

"Is that what we're practicing today?" Joseibi asked.

A cascade of water splashed down over the blonde leaving her to shrink down inside her clothes to the size of a small blonde-furred fox.

"Not, quite, kit," Tsume Inuzuka said with a smirk as she looked down at the irritated fox.

The woman grinned and chuckled as she looked up toward the dogs that were sitting and waiting at the corner of the compound. Then she glanced down again at the small fox who blinked, her ears perking as she snapped a look toward the dogs and up toward the head of the Inuzuka clan.

"That's right, kit," she said. "See how long you can stay free."

Joseibi little out a protesting yip.

"You've got a five minute head start," Hana said calmly. "Do not look for hot water."

A few more yips slipped out of her mouth, looking between the two dog women.

"You're using up your time, kit," Tsume said with a dark smile.

Ears flattening against her head, Joseibi darted away at full speed.

"Heh," Tsume said. "Haven't had a good fox hunt in ages."

"You did remember to tell the dogs not to harm her when they catch her right?" Hana asked.

"More or less," Tsume responded with a shrug.

* * *

Joseibi zipped along the path, sniffing out the paths of the air as she did so, under no delusions that she compared at all to the dogs that would no doubt be tracking her down sometime in the near future.

A series of howls sounded from behind her in the direction of the Inuzuka main house.

Very near future.

She paused and whined, looking about and cursing the fact that she hadn't thought to move off the path yet, just ran straight out. Which mean the dogs had a straight trail to her.

Okay, this was going to be over in short order following her scent on every bit of dirt and blade of gra…

Joseibi glanced toward the grass along either side of the path.

* * *

Kuromaru paused and barked a command to the three Haimaru brothers pacing behind him. They came to a brief stop and watched as the torn up fragments of grass drifted down to them on the wind. The little green bits were just about plastered in the little fox's scent, and Kuromaru could already tell that they weren't the only ones about.

Another quick bark and the line of dogs spread out and set to sniffing about in a more cautious manner as the wind born fragments of fox-rolled grass drifted down in the air about them. Laying such false trails by remote meant the trails were automatically feeble and quickly discounted, but it took time and consideration and it slowed the hunt.

A little bit.

* * *

Joseibi brushed her small furry body against a clump of leaves on the branch next to her before starting to twist the leaves off and leaped for the next branch shaking her head to let leaves fall off the branch in her mouth and carry her scent down and in random directions buffeted by the wind through the bows and trunks of the trees.

The fox came to the edge of the trees and jumped out as far as she could from the top, releasing the last of the leaves to go wherever they wanted as she landed on the ground in the middle of a small yard fully of tasty smells.

"Ahhh!" someone shouted loudly.

Joseibi looked up to see the bristly end of broom swinging down toward her and yipped as she jumped aside.

"Out of my yard!" the wielder of the broom demanded. "Out! Out! Mangy fox!"

As he spoke he snapped down his broom at the little blonde-furred fox which dodged aside desperately yipping as she zipped around, trying to find a way out from under the broom's path.

* * *

One of the brothers Haimaru howled at the gates of a small farm, satisfied as the scent of the yellow fox they were tracking down grew stronger. Now with the other three dogs called, they'd be able to corner the kit and end this exercise.

"Out! Out!" some human was shouting, drawing a curious look from the dog as it started to leap the gate, and catching sight of a small yellow piece of fluff as he found himself in mid air.

The dog tried to twist about in mid air, but found itself stuck in its path. And then a firmly swung broom smacked him in the face, sending him rolling to the ground in a more or less unharmed but frankly confused mess and hitting the fence wall hind legs sticking up in the air and head pushed down into the dirt blinking as he started to roll up to standing, only to find himself being battered about continuously by the broom.

"First mangy foxes and now stray dogs, you aren't getting my chickens!" the farmer shouted as he continued to batter the Inuzuka dog about the head.

That is up until the dog irritably reached up and grabbed the broom shaft under the brush and snapped it off with a low growl.

"Uhh…" the farmer said hesitantly. "Nice doggie?"

* * *

Joseibi blinked as she darted out down the middle of the incoming pack of hunting dogs, another somewhere already behind her. All three of the dogs blinked and turned about to watch her pass with a trace of disbelief and skidded to a stop, turning about on a dime to follow after her.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" a voice came from behind, pursued by loud, angry barks.

Kuromaru and the other two Haimaru's set it aside for a moment, up until the now fleeing farmer, eyes closed and fleeing, slammed over one of the other grey brothers and ending up in a tangle of limbs and fur, staring at a perplexed canine face.

"Ahhh! Don't eat me!" he shouted as the barking of the brother that had already been pursuing him, or so he thought, came filtering up through the air.

Pushing and kicking out at the new dog, which quickly moved from confused to angry, the farmer stood up and continued running along the same path the fox had used.

The third Haimaru brother thrust past his two brothers and Kuromaru and lit out after the scent of the fox, wishing the loud, whiny human would just get out of the way. The other dogs quickly followed in his wake.

* * *

"Ugg, dog walking again," one of the leaf genin said, rolling his eyes. "When are we going to get something else? How about gardening, or doing repair work on the old people's houses?"

The genin team was holding the leashes for collectively nine dogs.

"Don't you have any ambition?" one of the other two genin said. "Here we are, ninja for ten years and the chunin exams taking place right now and we're both doing menial labor instead of going out for promotion."

"Oh, I'm fine with menial work," the first said. "I just get tired of dealing with all this dog shit."

"Hey, at least that's all we have to deal with," the third said. "It's not like there are any…"

A blonde fox sped past, attracting the attention of all the dogs as it ran past at a heavy sprint.

"…surprises?" the last genin said turning to watch the fox and holding tightly to the leashes of the three dogs under his control.

"Make them stop!" a frantic voice called out in the next moment, drawing the glances of three genin struggling to control through nine untrained, somewhat spoiled dogs of various sizes.

All three found themselves unintentionally clotheslined by a frantic civilian who brought them all tumbling down in a clump, rolling ahead himself to an embarrassing stop, rear in the air. The domesticated pet dogs slipped their leashes and all four humans found themselves covered in paw prints in short order.

The three genin lifted their heads to glare at the farmer just moments before the Inuzuka dogs barreled past them, mostly jumping over the pile, but smacking at least one ninja in the back of the head on the way.

Seeing the huge dogs coming, the farmer shrieked and backpedaled at an amazing pace before finding his feet again and continuing his headlong flight.

Kuromaru gave an irritated whuff as the Haimaru brothers barked angrily.

For a moment, they thought that they had gotten rid of the annoying, screaming civilian.

One of the three genin stood up and dusted himself off irritably.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

"Damn it!" another shouted. "The dogs! We have to get the dogs!"

And off they went.

* * *

Joseibi turned a corner at a brisk run, passing under the legs of several people on the street, who glanced down briefly before the pack of wild dogs pushed through much less gracefully. The little yellow cursed fox, watched ahead, looking for some sort of new distraction and found it in the form of three more genin returning a particularly hated rival to the mission office.

The fox Joseibi smirked.

"Tora," she thought. "Meet your doom…or at least mine."

And up she jumped onto the shoulder of the one of the genin not carrying the cat and started yipping in a decidedly mocking tone.

"Is that fox actually…baiting the cat?" one of the genin asked.

Tora hissed and spat with new rage and reached out to slash at the fox which jumped from the shoulder of the genin she was on and towards the man's face who was carrying the cat.

Blinking in surprise the genin through him his hands to cover his face, providing Joseibi a perfect spring board to bounce off of, and tossing the cat up into the air and back to the ground.

Tora looked like he was about to take off after Joseibi when the raucous barking behind attracted the cat's attention, sending it into a shocked yowl as it took off at a skittering run and bringing the horde of dogs past the ninja that had been assigned to recover him.

The tangle slowed down the dogs, but the cat was out like a rocket, and now the dogs had two targets to pursue. And, as a particularly frantic farmer ran around the tangle of dogs and ninja to join pace with a particular cat just before the majority of the dogs worked themselves free and into the pursuit.

Kuromaru and the Haimaru brothers exchanged exasperated looks as they worked around and over another group of tangled up humans in pursuit of the damn yellow fox.

And now six genin were following the dogs.

* * *

Joseibi, thinking frantically, dashed past a corner and glanced over her shoulder.

"Okay, pissing off Tora again was a bad idea," she said to herself.

She passed a street through the feet of a large number of ninja travelling down the street from the academy and wondered if that was perhaps the people taking the exams, but put the thought aside for the moment.

* * *

"Ryoko-chan!" Kiba called out to the black-haired Saotome just as the girl reached a corner and glanced back over her shoulder briefly towards him.

Just in time to miss a little yellow blur dashing past and attracting Kiba's eyes for a moment as it disappeared into an alley across the way.

"Was that Joseibi's fox form?" he asked curiously before turning back to more important matters.

"Ryoko! Wait!" he shouted again.

Ryoko took another step forward past the building corner into the street and turned about to look at Kiba.

"Ano, Inuzuka-san?" she asked for a moment.

"Before the next test, I need to talk to…"

Tora the cat ran past the two hissing and spitting fervently.

"Ano?" Ryoko asked.

Just before she vanished in a near tidal wave of canine fur, leaving her behind covered in dirty paw prints and face in the ground.

"The hell?" Kiba asked, flinching.

A screaming farmer ran past moving around Ryoko. He was followed by Kuromaru and the Haimaru brothers and then six genin

From where she was trampled, Ryoko muttered weakly.

"Itaiiii..."

* * *

Tsume arched an eyebrow as she looked over toward the clock.

"This is taking longer than I thought," she said. "You haven't taught her how to escape a hunt yet, have you?"

The older woman turned to look toward her daughter.

"Maybe she's just being lucky," Hana suggested.

And on that, the sound of barking came from the yard.

"Ah, there she….is?" Tsume said, blinking at the sight before her.

Joseibi was there, held by the scruff of her neck in Kuromaru's jaws, looking utterly exhausted and embarrassed. All four canines and the one vulpine were splattered with paint of various colors, scratched up in several small ways, and had what looked like candy sticking to their fur in places.

They all looked more than a little exasperated.

Hana and Tsume stared with their mouths hanging up.

"I get the feeling we're hearing about this," Tsume said with a sigh.

* * *

I may be getting a website fairly soon, in which case, I'm going to start transferring my fanfiction over there. I'll probably still be posting parts of chapters here so you can continue to benefit from the alerts and such you set up (and so I can keep using the data-tracking tools). After a month or so, I'll take the chapters from my website and put them here.

But they'll be going up on my website first by at least a month.


	14. Grass

"The reports were the interlopers came from this place," one of three figures said. "Are we sure about that this is truly the place?"

They moved a little out of the way and let the majority of the genin continue on past them. They each had forehead protectors of their own

"Three of those present match the descriptions the villagers provided," one of the other two said. "And that girl is suspicious."

"A clumsy child who uses chakra. We all saw that was fire, not pure energy," the third said doubtfully. "We must determine who she is in this next test. And if these are the shinobi that defeated that worthless woman, then we have found the prize, nowhere near the Land of Tea or other haunts of the Redeemed School and their allies."

"We have an eavesdropper," the first said, frowning and pointing.

"I'm impressed," a woman's voice said from the shadows nearby said. "But then, you are true chi-adepts, aren't you."

There was a taunting mode to the voice as a woman bearing a Kusagakure headband stepped into view. It was as if she knew easily how to hide if she so chose.

"Who are you chakra-spawn," one of them demanded, slipping into a fighting stance.

"It is better to ask who are you," she responded. "I have not seen Tanigakure shinobi before, though I have heard of it occasionally. Some backwoods village that no one's ever hired for a mission, isn't it?"

She smiled and licked her lips.

"Or perhaps just a chi-adepts backdoor into the Shinobi World," she chuckled, again with the condescending tone. "Let us talk again once we've both entered the next test."

And with that the woman vanished from sight, leaving the chi-adepts to catch up with the other testers. In his borrowed form, Orochimaru considered them as they cautiously left.

This complicated matters, but it could certainly be an interesting addition. He'd anticipated that there would be many individual plots involved in the Chunin exam with ninja from all over attending, and not just the Sand invasion he was encouraging. Or his own intentions to test Sasuke and cut off his support.

He had not considered the presence of chi-users, given their tendency to stay more or less uninvolved in shinobi affairs.

Orochimaru shook his head.

Chi was one of those things that it was hard to get a specimen for. And those specimens he had acquired had yielded up very little information in examination. Experiments involved in encouraging those born with an inherent talent for it had had less than usable results.

Especially he'd proven and reproven that it made the use of chakra terribly inefficient. Even if it was useful, it was heading down backwards down the road he'd taken already, probably far enough backwards that it was suicide for him to try.

Still, now that he was aware of it, it was another wild card for his use.

Which reminded him, he needed to have this stolen face on hand to present an easy way for that girl to get into the next test and set her out like a wind up noise-maker.

* * *

Ryoko stood up dizzily shaking her head clear and trying to dust away the several dog-paw prints that covered the back of her kimono. Kiba noted at least one footprint from a human as well and reached to hold her steady.

"Just a moment Ryoko-chan," he said. "Let me get it."

"H…hai, Inuzuka-san," she said nervously.

She said everything nervously, though, so there wasn't much to that. He took a couple of seconds to get the dirt off her back, or at least down to a pattern that one couldn't immediately identify as being from being trampled by a pack of wild dogs.

Really undisciplined civilian dogs.

The next time Team 8 pulled dog walking duty he'd be sure to give the lot of them a good talking to with Akumaru's help. After all, the Inuzuka dogs had known well enough not to trample people in their way. It was one thing to trample people in your way when you meant to, he'd done it enough times himself, but doing it without intent like that was just clumsy and gave dogs a bad reputation.

He stopped distracting himself and asked the question he wanted to ask.

"Would you have killed yourself if you had withdrawn from the exam?" Kiba asked. "Committed Hari-Kiri."

Ryoko swallowed and bit her lip nervously.

"Performed," she corrected and started to walk up the street at a good pace.

Kiba caught up with her easily enough.

"Why the hell would you do that?" he demanded.

"Because I w…w..would have dishonored my f…family with m.m.."

"Bull shit," Kiba snapped, cutting her off. "You're not going to dishonor Joseibi by wanting to make sure you're around to take care of her. That's just being a good sister."

Ryoko flushed and looked away, picking up her pace.

"Su…sumimasen, Inuzuka-san," she said. "Y…you cannot understand."

"Damn right I can't!" he snapped. "You can't tell me you'd make such a choi…"

"There is no choice," she interrupted quietly. "We are going to be t…t..tardy to this last test, Inuzuka-san if w..w..we…don't. Do not. Do not. Do. Not! Hurry."

That said she took off at a run up the sleep, only coming to a stop as she rejoined the mass of the ninja waiting for the next test and found her team. Kiba filtered into the crowd only shortly behind her, looking more than a little bit unsatisfied with things as he was cut off from following Ryoko by his own team.

Sakura watched the display with some trace of relief as it gave her something to think about rather than her own untenable situation. She hmphed and crossed her arms with narrowed eyes as she watched Kiba pursuing the outsider girl. He was obviously not learning the message. If this kept up, she was going to have to give the bully a lesson in how to treat girls herself.

Her ruminations on the punishment of a person she saw as a violent misogynist were cut short as a woman stepped forward with a bundle of waivers and a sharp look to her eyes.

"Wow! There's a lot of you!" she called out. "I'm going to have my work cut for me. Anyway, I have to pass these out. Waivers! From here on out, people die and I need your consent for that, otherwise…I'm responsible."

Anko swept her eyes over the crowd, trying to find the one that was out of place per Ibiki's warning. Like he said, it felt like her brain was passing over something obvious. That there was something there and she just couldn't spot it for being under her nose.

She half wanted to call Kakashi or Kurenai over to do a look over, but that it wasn't allowed for the jonin tutors to be involved in this stage of the exams.

"All right," she said. "Here's the deal…excuse me? Am I boring you?"

One of the Kusagakure ninja had started to wander off and she narrowed her eyes at the man darkly, a wide blood-thirsty smile under her eyes.

"I…I just needed to relieve myself," he said.

"Go ahead and go," Anko said, chuckling. "But don't blame me if you come back without the information you need to survive."

She turned back towards the others and put the man out of her concern. He was from the Village Hidden in the Grass, not her own village, what did she care if he sabotaged himself and his team.

The snake-woman thus didn't notice perhaps her one chance to see Sakura breaking away from the safety of the crowd and losing her genjutsu.

"This is the way it will work," she called out. "Every team is going to be given a scroll. It will either say Heaven or Earth on it. You need one of each scroll to pass this course."

"So at least half the teams will be eliminated," Sasuke noted idly, turning to look at Ryoko. "Where've you been?"

"Ano…there were dogs…and…" Ryoko started to say.

"Whatever," Sasuke said. "I don't need to know."

"Sumimasen," Ryoko said.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and glared at Sasuke.

"What are you talking to her like that for?" Naruto growled.

"Pay attention to the proctor," the Uchiha said firmly.

Shikamaru took in the rules and nodded, glancing toward his teammates.

"Five days to get to the tower at the center of the training ground," he noted quietly, looking toward his teammates. "What a pain."

"It is very dangerous in there," Hinata confirmed, eyes fixed on the forest and the veins of her byakugan visible to the two teammembers giving her some visual cover from the other teams to use the sight for some preliminary scouting.

Shino, however, was looking toward Kiba.

Kiba seemed still a little distracted and the bug wrangler frowned. He followed the line of his vision and saw the elder Saotome and narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses. Now was not the time to be thinking about mating.

"This training ground is called the Forest of Death for a reason," Anko said. "Be on your guard."

Under normal circumstances, she'd have been a bit flirty with the way she gave that information, but given the situation with the imposter they had on hand she decided to give the information for the most part safe. She glanced over and saw the errant Kusagakure ninja returning to join his team and smirked at the shaky way the man took the death waiver.

The individuals were separating to consider their waivers.

Or at least most were, one girl walked right up to her and tried to hand it in.

"Ano…Mitarashi-sama," she said, holding out her waiver. "Here it is."

"Already?" Anko said blinking. "You're not going to think about it?"

"I..iie," Ryoko said, shaking her head. "I am already pr…prepared."

"You don't sound ready to die," Anko said, arching an eyebrow. "Besides, you turn these in with your teammembers."

"Oh," Ryoko said. "Su…sumimasen."

"You're the chi-adept," Anko said in sudden realization.

"H…hai," Ryoko said, bowing. "Ryoko Saotome of the…Ano…."

"Something wrong?" Anko asked.

"Kodachi-sama be…belongs to the…Redeemed School of Musabetsu Kakuto-Ryu," she explained. "I…I wonder if I should be calling myself as par..part of that school now instead of the Saotome-Ryu Musabetsu Kakuto-Ryu."

"I'm sure there's not that much a difference, kid," Anko said with a laugh as she reached out to ruffle the girl's hair. "Don't take things so seriously. You're twelve years old and about to go into a life-threatening forest filled with monsters and trained killers. Have some fun while it lasts."

With each description of peril and danger, the girl's eyes seemed to sparkle with greater enthusiasm.

"Hai! Mitarashi-sama!" she declared. "It shall be greatly enjoyable to face so many worthy opponents."

Anko blinked and stared at Ryoko at the sudden transformation and then laughed aloud.

"That's the spirit!" she declared. "Go forth and spill blood!"

"Hai!" Ryoko declared obediently, drawing several eyes her direction. "Hopefully it will not hurt my oppon..nents too much to…sp..spill their blood?"

Kiba stared over his form from where he stood and gaped at the conversation, the very loud conversation, between Ryoko and the proctor.

"I swear there's something about her," he muttered to himself. "Bipolar or something?"

Elsewhere, Naruto was wandering about as he stared at the waiver in front of him.

"All I have to do is sign my name," he said. "So why is this taking so long?"

He looked up and saw Hinata standing there and smiled as he waved over at her.

"Hey, Hinata," he called out.

"Oh, Naruto-kun," Hinata said nervously as the blonde-haired young man walked over to her.

"So, are you having trouble with this too?" he asked her.

"I just…" Hinata started to say.

"I mean, it's just signing my name," Naruto said loudly. "What's the big deal?"

"Well…" Hinata said.

"Anyway," Naruto said. "I've got to go back to where Sasuke and Ryoko are with this thing. I'll be waiting to see you at the tower thing, right Hinata?"

"Hai!" Hinata declared.

"See you, Hinata," Naruto said in a friendly, conversational tone as he walked off.

"Right," Hinata said, blushing. "See you…Naruto-kun."

* * *

The teams that accepted the challenge were given their scrolls and sent to one of forty-four gates around the outside of the circular training ground, each group waiting for a chance to show what they could do for the most part, though a few groups had darker, more specific concerns.

And with one of those was a girl who wasn't supposed to be there, bound tightly in a subtle but powerful genjutsu to keep on with her ill-conceived plan. Now she was imitating a dead man whom she had been allowed to defeat and unknowingly standing beside the devil that had enabled her to get this far as it was.

As the time was called out, she dived into the forest ahead, intent on getting well clear of the team she had infiltrated before they realized that she was an imposter.

She didn't get far.

No sooner was she out of sight of the gate and the proctor who was in the process of locking it behind the examinees, than the woman that appeared to be the head of the team practically teleported to her side and grabbed hold of her.

"Wh..what are you doing?" Sakura demanded of the woman as she struggled to free herself.

"Why, Sakura-chan," the "woman" responded. "Leaving so soon after everything I've done to help you get this far?"

The third member of the group came along emotionlessly and silently behind.

"Everything you …how do you know my name?" Sakura asked cautiously.

"Why, I've been keeping a close watch on you these past few days," he said. "You're going to do something for me."

"Wh…what?" Sakura asked. "Who are you?"

"To begin with…" the woman said as a small white serpent seemed to grow out of her hand.

* * *

Sakura snapped awake and looked around desperately, trying to remember just why she was so afraid. The fear virtually flooded throughout her, paralyzing in its intensity and fading only slowly, but she couldn't remember what had caused it. Likewise, her body ached, like she'd eaten bad food, and her back felt like something had torn strips into it.

Shaking and standing slowly, the pink-haired kunoichi took in several breaths until the fear subsided and she was left with just confusion as to where she was and how she had gotten there. A large portion of the last couple of days was just…fog to her.

She sort of remembered being turned away by the library, and lecturing Kiba about hitting defenseless girls was there. A lot of the rest was just a persistent fog until she woke up here.

"What am I doing here," she wondered, blinking.

At least it wasn't all that dark, given the amount of tree-coverage she'd have expected it to be almost as dark as night in this place.

She had been traveling for several minutes with no real direction in mind when she had the sudden feeling of being watched. Sakura paused for just a moment and put herself against a tree quietly, narrowing her eyes to scan through the darkness.

A trio of ninja landed within the edge of her vision, incautiously remaining out of the deeper shadows. Silently, they looked toward each other with gestures to split up and go around.

"Why are they after me?" Sakura thought nervously as she glanced about furiously looking for some advantage or escape route.

Quietly, she climbed up into the higher branches, eyes alert and feeling a tenseness all throughout her body that oddly didn't feel like fear at all. Sakura felt edgy, twitchy and uncomfortable, but she didn't have that paralyzing feeling. That age-old instinct to freeze and wait for opportunity, or the hope that a predator might choose another target, was missing.

Which wasn't to say that she didn't feel any sort of fear.

That terror she had woken up with still lingered, and started to join with a sort of confusion and psychological fear that had nothing to do with external threats and everything to do with her uncertainty over what was happening or had already happened to her.

The Takigakure shinobi started to close in on her, out maneuvering her attempts at avoiding attention and seeking escape.

"Come on out," one of them said. "If you have your team's scroll, you can hand it over and we'll be on our way. If not then you're nothing to us."

"Scroll?" Sakura repeated. "Wh..what is he talking about?"

She glanced up towards a brief sound and saw one of the ninja coming out of one of the shallow shadows and making his way down to her. Swallowing, Sakura ducked around the trunk of the tree she was in and stuck to the deepest shadows she could find, wondering just why they hadn't found her yet. Then she dropped down toward a lower branch, hoping to double back on herself and move out underneath her pursuers.

The pink-haired student landed on the branch at almost the exact time as the third Takigakure, a brown haired woman, did and for a moment, Sakura froze in motion.

"She's here! Over he-!"

Hot red blood sprayed over the scene.

"Juni!" shouted the other two Takigakure shinobi as they zeroed in on the scene.

Seconds later, Sakura sat pressed against the tree bark, staring at her blood soaked hands and arms and shaking visibly. The kunai she'd used discarded in the middle of the three Takigakure which bore similar, fixed staring expressions full of horror, but without any life to them as the kunai that had been used to end their life was stuck into tree branch between them.

One of them, the first, shifted weakly, baring some trace of life still, only to disrupt her precarious balance and slide off the tree branch in front of Sakura's face, crashing into several branches on the way down to land in a twisted mess.

"No. No. No," Sakura repeated, trying to ignore the radiating and warm sense of personal satisfaction that the more aggressive, internal part of her felt.

* * *

"Our first task," Sasuke said "has got to be to recover one of those scrolls. This early, the teams will be spreading out all over the training area hunting each other out."

"Hai," Ryoko said, nodding.

"Right, right," Naruto said. "So let's go find ."

He started to stand up and head out into the trees as Ryoko hesitantly raised her hand, index finger raised as if to make a point.

"Ano…" she said.

Sasuke took a more direct approach and reached out to grab the genin and pull him down.

"We have to think this through," the Uchiha snapped. "We can't just thrash about and hope we'll find someone."

"Ano…" Ryoko noted.

"But just sitting here and talking about it isn't going to do anything," Naruto responded.

"Would you keep your voice down, idiot?" Sasuke snapped, failing to take his own advice and irritably biting down on the end of the last word as he noticed it.

"Ano?" Ryoko asked again.

"What is it?" the Uchiha demanded as he turned to look at her.

Ryoko flinched away and hesitantly moved to answer.

"Spit out," Sasuke snapped.

"Hey, hey, calm down, Sasuke," Naruto protested. "You'll get her flustered and then she'll burn something."

"I…I…I…" Ryoko stuttered.

"In any case, we should take to the trees," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes and setting aside Ryoko's stuttering attempt to say something. "Ryoko's best in the air and both of us like using odd terrain, so up high is best for us."

"Right," Naruto said. "So let's g…oh, wait, what were you going to say Ryoko-chan?"

"I was also going to s..suggest the trees," she said quietly.

"Right," Sasuke said, shaking his head. "Let's go."

"Just a second," Naruto said. "I have to go to the bath room."

Sasuke's head dropped as Ryoko stared at him.

"Uzumaki-san," she sighed.

He was behind the shrubbery for a few moments when Sasuke and Ryoko heard an incensed scream.

"What are you doing you barbaric brat!" a strange man's voice shouted as if through a receptor just moments before a resounding thud turned the harangue into a brief "Oof"

"Well you shouldn't be interrupting a guy taking a piss!" Naruto's voice returned.

Ryoko and Sasuke froze in their barely formed motions to go to Naruto's aid, the Uchiha's eyes narrowing as he gave an expressing huff.

"Uzumaki-san," Ryoko sighed.

And then both continued through the brush to find Naruto zipping up his pants as he stood over the unconscious form of an enemy ninja.

"The bastard tried to interrupt me answering the call of nature," Naruto grumbled. "So we heard," Sasuke noticed as he, very carefully, searched the fallen man to find no scroll. His eyes scanned the trees around and he smirked as he noticed something. "Lone scout. Let's get out of here."

"Uzumaki-san," Ryoko noted. "Be careful going off alone, you c…could be ambushed."

"I know, I know," Naruto said. "I'm being careful, believe it."

* * *

An extra Naruto watched the three continue off through the forest and smirked.

"All right, that worked!" he declared.

"Sshhh," another said, stepping out. "I think Sasuke-teme saw you."

"Yeah, yeah," a third noted. "They're getting out of sight you know."

The other two Narutos laughed nervously as the small squad of clones performed a momentary sequence of hand signs and, in a burst of smoke shifted into the appearance of small animals before leaping forward to shadow the original and his team.

The idea had first come to him when Kodachi had pulled something similar on them back at that cursed village. Sending her clone out to take the heat while she watched to see what would happen. At the time, Naruto had thought that pretty cowardly, so he'd reversed the roles. His original would serve as the bait, and his clones would watch and wait to see what happened.

It was a good thing he had, otherwise that idiot would have knocked him out.

What was it Kakashi-sensei had said about Kodachi at the time?

Calculus? Right, that's what this was, calculus.

He'd never realized that math would be so easy and useful.

Maybe it would have been better to realize that before the written test though.

* * *

Sasuke glanced toward Ryoko and Naruto sitting across from him as they planned contingencies. Behind them, he'd heard someone softly digging through the dirt and getting closer. He waited until he'd heard the crumbling of dirt as something was pushed through to listen to them before he started speaking to the other two.

Ryoko had a puzzled look on her face and was starting glance around, most likely feeling the attention through her chi awareness. The girl couldn't be counted on to keep secret and quiet though, so Sasuke had to distract her before she realized what was going on.

"Okay, if we're ever separated there's a chance someone might try to impersonate one of us," he said. "I'll bet that was what the idiot who tried to jump Naruto was doing."

Ryoko blinked and dutifully paid attention to Sasuke as he spoke, setting aside the developing awareness of their visitor.

As to Naruto and the trio of shadow clones that had been following them, Sasuke wasn't sure whether or not they'd noticed, but he'd kept pretty mum on his tactic so far, so the Uchiha wasn't concerned about him giving anything away…yet.

"So we'll set up a password," he said. "You ask say 'Ninja Song: Ninja Chance' and the response will be 'It is the chance to sneak up where a large number of enemies is making a scene. The quiet place has no secret hideout. It is important for a shinobi to know the right time, the time when an enemy is tired and drops his guard.' That's it."

"Hai, Uchiha-san," Ryoko said firmly.

"Umm, could you say it one more time?" Naruto asked.

"I said I'd only say it once," Sasuke reminded him.

"Yeah, but still, could you repeat it again?" Naruto asked.

"It was…" Ryoko started to open her mouth, but stopped and rose to her feet, bokken out.

"What is it?" Sasuke demanded.

A small shard of bark slashed between them, scratching a line across Naruto's cheek.

"What the?" Naruto asked, getting set himself and standing up.

All three of them stared in the direction the shard had come from and listened as a roaring sound slashed through the scene, tearing into the very earth they stood on and sending the three of them scattered throughout that section of forest.

Sasuke quickly recovered and placed himself along the path of the wind attack, waiting for whoever might have sent it. He snapped up to attention and turned to look behind him, seeing nothing for a moment.

"Ano….Sasuke? Is there something wrong?"

He glanced toward his side and blinked to see the Saotome standing mere inches away and staring cautiously into the trees.

"Wait," he said, jumping back away. "Ninja Song: Ninja Chance."

How the heck had she gotten in that close to him?

"Ano…ohh! Hai, Sasuke. 'It is the chance to sneak up where a large number of enemies is making a scene. The quiet place has no secret hideout. It is important for a shinobi to know the right time, the time when an enemy is tired and drops his guard.' Is..is that correct?"

"Good," Sasuke said, relaxing slightly.

"Sasuke!" another voice called out as the two turned to see Naruto coming in from another direction.

"Wait," Ryoko said, holding out her hand. "What is the password, Naruto?"

"To heck with the password!" Naruto shouted, pointing at the girl as Sasuke stepped out.

"Wh…what do you mean by that?" Ryoko asked.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes toward Ryoko as he stepped in behind her.

"He means that you aren't Ryoko," Sasuke snapped as he kicked out with a leg.

Ryoko dodged the attack from behind easily and rolled off to land several yards away from both ninja, a nervous, shy expression on her face.

"Ano…what did I do?" she asked nervously.

"You got around my trick with the password by impersonating someone you were certain had it," Sasuke said. "But you obviously haven't watched Ryoko too much. She'd never make demands like you did, even reasonable ones."

"And she avoids Sasuke-teme like he was the plague," Naruto noted.

"I was going to note that she doesn't use given names for anybody the same age as her or older," Sasuke said dryly.

"Whatever," Naruto said, dismissing Sasuke's comment. "You aren't Ryoko! So drop the act, imposter. Before we drop you!

"Hmm, you're not tired or letting your guard down then," the fake Ryoko said, a long tongue slipping out to lick her lips before erupting into a burst of smoke.

In the place of Ryoko stood a tall woman of Kusagakure, wearing a bamboo hat and with a thick, purple rope tired around her waist.

"This will be more fun than I thought," she noted with a slight cackle.

* * *

Ryoko came to a stop finally against the top of tree, slamming into it like a doll thrown against the wall by a child in a fit. She gasped before rolling into her fall and coming to her feet at the base of the tree where Naruto had impacted at what looked to be a much more uncomfortable position than her.

A moment later, Naruto landed a few yards away and she brightened.

"Uzumaki-san!" she declared happily. "I am glad to see that you are al..alright. Where is…"

"Hold it," Naruto said commandingly. "What's the password? Ninja Song: Ninja Chance?"

"Ano…? Ohh! H…hai, Uzumaki-san…uhhh…" Ryoko put a finger to her chin.

"Ha, you can't remember it can you?" Naruto asked. "Ha."

"Ano?" Ryoko said, face flushed. "'It is the chance to sneak up where a large number of enemies is making a scene. The quiet place has no secret hideout. It is important for a shinobi to know the right time, the time when an enemy is tired and drops his guard.' Is..is that correct?"

Naruto opened his mouth to answer and then frowned.

His plan to take up the easy part of the password had a flaw…he couldn't tell if the other side of it was right or not.

"Umm…"

His thoughts were stopped as a shadow started to pass over the pair of them. "We've got bigger problems," he declared.

"Ano…" Ryoko agreed.

Then the snake dived down into the attack, sending the two young fighters scattering to either side.

Ryoko watched the giant snake slam into the ground with wide eyes. Even if she had mastered the Ja Jinku no Hebi, this thing was quite a bit bigger than that footwork form was designed to practice with.

Across from her in mid-air, Naruto rolled over another attack from the snake and laughed victoriously, only to be wrapped up by the tail and vanish into a puff of smoke.

"Kage Bunshin?" she said. "Wh…when did he do that?"

Then her feet struck the tree branch and she ricocheted off of it before the snake's head could strike her again. Behind her, the branch she had bounced off of fragmented into a thousand pieces as the snake struck it. And then the tail came in behind her, an arch of chi following its wake that was born of the raw motion, but as undeniable as an avalanche.

Ryoko twisted about and let the tip slam downward into her outstretched hands and feet before pushing off and rocketing downward toward the forest floor, well ahead of the coils that had tried to follow up with taking her prisoner.

Below her, the head was rising up to catch her in its mouth.

Ryoko twisted in the air, wrapping more of the chi of her fall about her as she did so. The chi wanted to go forward and as she twisted it back the opposite way, that desire became even greater and greater. When she reached the head, she flinched as the mouth opened wide, but slammed downward into the beast with the force of a cannon ball, knocking its great head backward into a solid tree and knocking the serpent cold.

Reflexively, however, it swallowed as Ryoko tried to escape the slimy maw of its throat, and she was dragged further down.

* * *

"You want our scroll, don't you?" Naruto declared.

"Well, since you have the Heaven scroll," the woman said, taking out her earth scroll and bringing it up to her mouth.

She opened her jaw, stretching the mouth wide and pushing the scroll down inside of her with no perceptible discomfort and to the disgust of both the watching ninjas.

"So, let's continue our battle," she said. "Life or Death."

Naruto and Sasuke each readied their weapons as the Kusagakure ninja woman reached up toward her face. Instantly a wash of sickening fear washed over both Konoha ninja as images of their impending death flashed through their minds, carrying both downward.

Sasuke gasped and felt his stomach doing flips as he collapsed to his knees.

Was that genjutsu?

His thoughts rushed ahead as he decided immediately that it wasn't…that it was simply sheer blood lust radiating out from the woman.

He felt his hand shaking, wondering if they were even fighting something human.

"Naruto," he gasped, looking over towards the other shinobi.

The blonde was shaking in his boots, but still standing and a determined look on his face.

"Hah!" Naruto snapped shakily, trying to sound determined. "You think you're just going to scare us into quitting? I'm…I'm getting that scroll from you if I have ram my hand down your throat."

Sasuke gasped in shock. Hadn't Naruto just felt that wave of blood lust? Was he too stupid to realize how powerful this person had to be? Was he trying to get killed?

Slowly, Sasuke rose to his feet and struggled against the paralyzing fear in order to find some way to get away from this freaky Kusagakure ninja. He had other goals in mind that only he could complete. He couldn't allow himself to be destroyed, not here and now.

The woman smiled at them.

"And what do you plan to do?" the woman asked.

An orange blur erupted out of the bushes at her side, drawing the woman's attention that way as another Naruto charged in.

"I plan to kick your ass!" the new Naruto declared loudly.

The woman blinked in surprise as she dodged the attack and stepped calmly back away from the second Naruto's line of attack.

"Kage bunshin," she said casually as she dispersed the clone with a simple motion. "Most surprising. Most surprising indeed."

The woman turned toward the two frozen shinobi and noted that they had fled while she was distracted and looked up toward their path of escape.

* * *

Ryoko struggled in the slimy bowels of the snake pushing out and trying to climb her way out of it. She could feel the energies of the snake trying to eat through her own and once that was accomplished it would step easily for the acids of its digestive juices to destroy her.

She was going to die, not in battle against a strong worthy opponent, but as the dinner of an animal. And all she could do was struggle until she grew tired and gave up.

She'd failed.

She'd failed her team.

She'd failed her sister.

She'd failed her family honor.

Her eyes flashed orange.

Outside, the snake stirred as an uncomfortable warmth built within its belly. That discomfort grew to pain that quickly grew maddening. Smoke bore up from inside its mouth and in places along its body, spots of glowing orange seemed to emerge from the body of the giant serpent.

Soon after those first spots of orange appeared, they erupted into great devouring flames, that rushed painfully up the length of the snake.

* * *

"What the are you doing pulling me away from that?" Naruto demanded. "We should have attacked right then when the gen…"

"Quiet!" Sasuke snapped, looking back the way their enemy lay. "We can't fight this enemy as we are now."

Naruto pulled the other ninja's hand away from his mouth, growling.

"What the hell do you mean by th…Sasuke! Snake!" Naruto shouted, throwing out a kunai as he shouted.

It struck the snake but did little damage as the great beast dived down to shatter the branch the two had just been on.

They flew through the air landing lightly upon branches to either side of the snake. Sasuke watched as the serpent's head rose up to charge towards him. For a moment, he imagined the woman's face behind the snake and he reacted reflexively, biting down a scream to send a barrage of shuriken out and into the snake's mouth, watching them erupt out of the back of its head.

Sasuke, his eyes red with the Sharingan panted as he watched the snake slam down into the crook of a tree and its blood pouring down the bark. Across the field of battle, Naruto was doing likewise, though showing less fatigue as he wasn't yet using any heavy jutsu.

"Don't lower your guard for a second," the woman's voice said as she pushed her way out of the cracking skin of the did second. "Prey must always be tense and try to flee desperately when faced with a…."

The woman stopped as Naruto leaped in to the attack. Immediately her attention was on them again, slamming into Naruto so that the orange-clad ninja flew through the air and into a tree.

To burst into a cloud of smoke.

Sasuke gasped as he made the realization that his companion had been a kage bunshin the whole time and wondered where the real Naruto had fled to, or if he was with Ryoko, wherever she might be.

* * *

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, head pointed downwards. "Can anybody hear me?"

He swung entangled in a load of vines swinging one way and the other, wrapped up tightly and for the most part immobilized as he continued his pendulum imitation.

"I need some help getting down from here! Hey!"

His calls for help slowed down as images came suddenly of Ryoko and Sasuke in danger. He wasn't sure exactly how he'd seen them, he'd just knew, somehow that they were both fighting and in heavy trouble.

"Am I just going to swing here while they fight?" he demanded of himself as he pulled free one hand and brought it to the other.


	15. Bites

The woman frowned at the smoke of the dispersed clone and glanced around looking for the real Naruto before another form leaped down to attack.

Sasuke took in the reddened face, as if she'd recently been badly sunburned and the shattered glasses of Ryoko Saotome as the girl hurled her bokken ahead of her and landed in a tight stance before whipping about with her leg and slashing swiftly over the ducking form of the Kusagakure shinobi. Already she was whipping out with a fist at knee level as she twisted and the woman sharply dodged.

The Kusagakure shinobi grimaced as the trailing air of the attacks brushed into her with painful if not debilitating force. Lines and trails of chi were following the girl's attacks. Another chi-slave, and that explained a lot of why the other three were here and who they were looking for.

The dead woman harboring a darker force leaped away and formed a hand sign, letting the blood lust flow out of him and wash over the two children as Ryoko ended a leap within five feet of him.

Sasuke, hit a second time, felt himself brought down to his knees again, but the effect on Ryoko was…different.

The fear for self was not normally a trigger for Ryoko's Kishu-Osore, but the raw intensity of the blood lust slipping out of Orochimaru pushed past the barriers most people had to keep the primal responses buried. Ryoko's fears were closer to the surface, even if her lack of self-esteem meant that she had a greater than usual resistance to threats to her person.

As the fear slammed into her, her face twisted away from the normal battle expression of feigned skittishness into one of true and total terror. No paralysis washed over her, her mind was shifted such that even the deepest pits of fear, she was capable of tactical thought and control, though her overall decision would grow more and more narrowed into a small segment of existence.

Her chakra coils swirled madly and unstably, letting the chi flows move through her with heavy rapidity and reaching Ryoko's brain strongly enough to awaken her normally poor chi awareness into a cacophony of corrupted and twisted sensation that did nothing to calm her and did everything to drive home the unnatural hideousness of the being provoking her into this state and layering everything around her in a similar mask formed by a combination of her own uncontrolled terror and the inhuman spirit of the person she faced.

Too much chakra flood her body and pushed outward with nowhere to go but through. Normally, the overflow was mild enough that it would only appear in the eyes as an orange flash or glow. Barring that, it would manifest as small coating flames. Earlier, in the belly of the snake, it had been a slowly building inferno, carried by chi that was no longer pure and light, but heavy and thick with her own corruption.

This time, it came to fast for her to adapt to it, and the fire exploded outward like a brilliant flare that Orochimaru barely leapt away from before the fire overtook him in its path to reduce everything near Ryoko to bare ash and cinders, including the formerly firm footing underneath her.

Ryoko dropped as her footing was lost, eyes a pair of brilliant bronze points staring out of the darker orange flames whipping heavily around her, as she landed and the pain of her burning flesh as she landed, but muscles obeyed a mind that had been dropped down to a single goal and she was swiftly rising up through the air at ridiculous speed to pursue their attacker.

Sasuke swallowed as a new wave of fear lashed out around the scene and he suddenly knew what Ryoko meant by "heavy chi". The air was choked with Ryoko's terror and even as far away as he was, it felt like the weight of the heavens crushing down on him. In his sharingan, he saw her chakra coils spiraling madly and seemingly trying to tear her apart from the inside as she pursued the Kusagakure out of the bonfire that had erupted around her.

And the freak was smiling at her.

Her fist slammed into the tree as she lashed out and just barely missed Orochimaru, it burned through leaving behind a trail of grey, sickly ash and black veins spread out through the tree like some sort of swift infection.

Her own head was already turned to follow Orochimaru and rocketing away from the burning, sickened tree.

Snickering, Orochimaru landed on his next retreat and bent down to place something at his feet. Ryoko landed as the first fire finished burning through the branch this had started with and the great piece of wood tumbled down noisily to the ground below. She lashed out with a complex sequence of kicks and punches sped by both the chakra she couldn't control desperately seeking an outlet and the chi she could and did force unnaturally into destructive power.

The Snake Sannin was struck and slammed about as feet and hands slammed into his vital points carrying lethal combinations of chakra fire and deadly corrupted chi that demanded a return to balance.

Sasuke watched with some satisfaction, and disappointment that he wasn't involved, as the freak screamed in pain and fear, Ryoko tearing him apart in a freakish combination of primal fury and focused discipline. Then the body burst into a shower of heated and dried clay pieces in Ryoko's face and Sasuke's eyes widened.

"A substitution!" he called out in a warning.

The immediate threat gone, Ryoko's fires released their hold on her, leaving her a ravaged body desperately needing rest and recovery with which to shape her normal, again purified chi. She stumbled down and looked out of eyes surrounded by blistered skin.

"Ano…?"

And then the paper bombs that Orochimaru had left behind exploded around her and she was thrown into the air, shock on her face as she passed out and slipped into a tumbling, random fall.

Sasuke watched as Ryoko tumbled to another branch, barely saved from a deadly fall, but crumpled in a little heap that was only barely breathing.

"Well, that one is a trouble maker," a soft voice said behind Sasuke.

The Uchiha heir froze and turned about slowly to look at the form behind him with terror. He couldn't account for the technique that had so thoroughly overtaken Ryoko, but it had been powerful and deadly, even now, the poisoned chi she'd infected the second tree with was spreading through it, cracking its bark in several places, but she had been taken out easily.

"Do you let your friends do all the fighting then?" Orochimaru asked behind his stolen face. "Stay in the back and hide behind the herd? Of course, that is only proper for prey like yourself. And now the herd is gone and you're alone."

"Like hell he is!" Naruto shouted as he landed down beside Sasuke.

"Ah, speaking of the herd," Orochimaru said with a light smile.

"Hmph," Naruto said as another version of him landed down near the fallen Saotome and scooped up Ryoko. "Let's take this freak, Sasuke."

"We can't, Naruto," Sasuke said. "Not as we are. We need more help!"

Naruto turned and fixed Sasuke with first a frown and then a smirk.

"Don't worry," he said. "I've got a plan."

"Is it a good plan?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said. "I call it…"

"Get her!" his voice cried from another location before a second clone dropped down behind Orochimaru and dived into an attack only to be dispersed.

It was a signal for clones of Naruto to start pouring out of the woodwork and dropping downward to attack Orochimaru even as Naruto Sasuke was talking to rushed to join them.

Behind Sasuke, the Naruto with Ryoko leaped away from the fight and Sasuke grimaced, certain that one was the original and cursed as he was certain that Naruto had left the fight to him and a bunch of expendable clones. Probably didn't even think about how much of a risk that left Sasuke in.

Orochimaru smiled as he danced and tore through the Naruto clones, though the sheer quantity intrigued him greatly. As did their coordination. True, they each had the same poor basic skills and didn't appear to have any jutsu to brag about past the kage bunshin, but at the very least the amount spoke of vast reserves of stamina and power.

A thought occurred to Orochimaru then as he disrupted another pair of clones and watched the numbers dwindling downward. He took in the features of his opponent and his vast stamina and came to a rather basic conclusion.

The jinchuriki?

Sasuke was teamed with a kishu and the village's jinchuriki.

Interesting friends indeed.

Orochimaru watched the clones carefully and noted in particular two. One that sat back and tossed shuriken forward without advancing, an effective decoy for most people who would assume that the clone user was trying to stay out of risk. However, the second Naruto he saw put the lie to that. Clones did not accumulate bruises and injuries like this one was. They took one serious hit, maybe two or three dependent on how much chakra went into them, and then dispersed, but this one Naruto had the bruises and injuries of multiple attempts to press into the front of the fight.

The snake sannin made as if the pile through the clones to attack the intended decoy and smirked as the target followed in his wake, looking for the knockout blow in the moment of surprise. Only to be surprised himself as Orochimaru came to a dead twisting stop and ripped about to slam his hand, glowing with chakra, into Naruto's gut.

Sasuke watched as a look of shock as clones started vanishing around the Naruto that had been struck until that was the only one left and that one was pushed away from Orochimaru with a casual shove.

"It seems I've broken Konoha's little toy," he said idly as Naruto tumbled in the fall that Ryoko had narrowly avoided earlier.

A kunai knife cut through the air and caught through Naruto's jacket, nailing him to the side of a tree.

Orochimaru's eye trailed to see a pink haired form below. Sasuke followed the gaze and looked downward to see the girl that had so frequently pestered their training.

"Sasuke-kun!" she shouted up. "What's going on! Where are …whe…"

She stopped and started clutching at her head in pain as the figure above her stared downward and seemed to somehow reach out into her soul to push something to start growing.

"Is this how you plan to defeat that man then?" Orochimaru asked with a smile. "Catspaws and 'friends'?"

Sasuke flinched and looked down at where the pink haired girl was screaming.

He thought back to that man's words.

"Run little brother, live your ugly life, flee and live until you can face me."

"No," Sasuke snapped, eyes snapping open into the Sharingan.

Orochimaru smiled as the Uchiha heir charged after him.

"Excellent," he thought.

The first few exchanges were expected as he danced around Sasuke with insane speed, speed enough to make the kishu's performance earlier look slow as a snail. Sasuke watched him carefully darting his looks around with those red eyes.

And then they broke off, facing each other and waiting for the exchange to begin.

Orochimaru failed to note a series of motions as significant. Motions that Sasuke had picked up in watching Kodachi and Mokya in their practices, and from watching Ryoko fight. As of yet there was no substance behind them, but it was a sign of a path that the snake sannin did not expect his target to be walking down.

He let the fight continue, up to when he'd dropped the boy after a basic sequence of Taijutsu.

"The Uchiha name is crying," Orochimaru declared, shaking his head as he crept up behind the seemingly down shinobi. "I should just put you out of your…"

And the trio of small hooked explosives erupted behind the ninja, knocking him off balance as the young Uchiha leaped away lashing out with shuriken and kunai trailing wires which he held tightly.

"Excellent," Orochimaru thought as he was pulled back into the tree by the wires to be held helplessly by the fires washing down them.

Orochimaru let the boy have a few moments of victory and give him a chance to catch his breath. Let the boy think that he'd succeeded in killing this Kusagakure genin.

Three intriguing individuals, he thought to himself, very intriguing. They would be excellent foils for Sasuke to set himself against, to measure himself next to. Little focuses of envy and jealously to stir the hate that he'd place in the boys heart.

Even now, his pink haired decoy was moving forward to see if he was okay, released from the enflaming of the infection he'd placed within her.

Sasuke didn't bother to look over at Sakura, his eyes fixed on the figure of the man he had just defeated.

And then watching as that form stirred and broke free before laying out a paralysis jutsu that bent both the shinobi and the medical apprentice to their knees, though it didn't come with the same crippling fear that had accompanied his leaking blood lust.

"Excellent," Orochimaru called out, abandoning the stolen voice of the woman he appeared as . "Very excellent. You are truly a member of the Uchiha clan, I did not think you would be so skilled at this early age. I am called Orochimaru, if you wish to see me again, race to the top of this test, defeat the Otogakure ninja that I have sent here to face you and come to the Village Hidden in the Sound that I control. Bring Sakura-chan with you, if she survives as she is that long."

"Wh..what are you saying," Sakura asked. "We don't want to be anywhere close to you."

"Well, that won't do," Orochimaru said with a smile as he formed a hand sign and his neck stretched out eerily to cross the many yards until he could sink his teeth into Sasuke's neck.

Sakura cried out from where she was and struggled against the paralysis as the awakened primal part of her struggled to strike out against the freak in front of her.

"He will come to me because he wants power," Orochimaru said as he walked away, leaving a crumpling Sasuke alone with Sakura and releasing the paralysis.

Instantly, the pink-haired girl was charging for him an angry shriek only to be caught by Orochimaru and slammed hard against the tree.

The violent primal part of her that had torn apart three genin and driven her forward to attack at the first opportunity now withered away and fled inside herself at the touch of the creature before her and she was left with just herself.

And pain that crawled up through her body and into her mind.

"You have not yet reached your expiration date, Sakura-chan," he said in a mockingly comforting tone. "Nor the end of your usefulness. Don't make yourself more trouble than your worth. Hide these children for me, and then run and run and kill until you wear yourself out. Lead them on a merry little chase."

Then he let her drop in a shivering mass, pain slowly filling her head as he turned about to walk away and vanish in a nimbus of purple flame. Her headache receded as he left.

"Wh..what is going on?" she wondered.

* * *

"All right," Kiba said. "Luckily we have our scrolls. Now."

He looked across towards the tower and considered.

"How far are we from the tower?" he asked.

"Five kilometers, maybe less," Shino said. "And we have barely started the test."

"Eh, Hinata," he said. "Did you catch sight of where Ryoko-chan and Naruto are assigned."

"Hmm?" Hinata asked, flinching. "I…wouldn't. I mean it is hidden…"

"Yeah, but did you see where they went?" Kiba asked.

"H..hai," Hinata said. "They're…they're all the way on the other side."

Kiba cursed under his breath.

"Damn it, too far," he muttered, sharing a look with Hinata. "It might take the whole five days to find them in all this. Even for us."

"It is illogical," Shino agreed. "Whatever concerns you have for the girl can wait until we see their team again."

He left out his consideration that there was a high chance that Sasuke and his team would be eliminated most permanently in this competition.

* * *

"As we agreed," Neji said, looking around at his team. "This is the time to attack when the other teams are settling down. We've secured food and water for ourselves. Whatever happens, we return here at the appointed time."

"Right, Neji," Tenten said.

"Yosh," Lee agreed.

"Then," Neji said. "Scatter."

* * *

Ryoko came up awake slowly, finding herself lying practically out in the open no where like the place she last remembered. Slowly, she pulled herself to her feet and slowly pushed herself into proper posture despite the protests of her nerves and muscles.

"Ano…Uzumaki-san?" she called out. "Uchiha-san?"

When she received no answer she took a long breath and started practicing her hand signs, trying to hit the right one to stir her chakra coils enough to let her see the chi flows properly. Hopefully that way she'd be able to find a trace of her teammates chi and follow that.

It was five minutes of ignoring pain before she stumbled on a hand sign that seemed to work, giving her a flash of the chi around her.

But then it was gone despite her holding the sign solid. She backed up to try the sign she'd been using before that and had no response.

Then she combined them.

After that she combined the last several signs looking for the right combination. Frowning, she focused solidly on setting her chakra coils to spinning the way they had before and tried the various signs again. Slowly, she shifted her attempts toward focusing on the chi flowing through her changed as she managed the hand signs.

Analyzing and adapting, the hallmarks of her family. Eventually, she was able to manage an effect on her chakra that let more chi flow to her mind. A faded and weak image of the surrounding chi came to her and she recognized a thread of corrupted chi filtering itself out, being cleaned and balanced.

Ryoko bit her lip as she realized that she herself had been the source of that corruption and then she slowly started to walk in that direction, letting the chi flow through her to soothe and ease her pains and injuries, encouraging them to heal.

* * *

Sakura watched as a squirrel wandered about the edge of the small camp she'd found and felt a chill working up her spine.

Her first thought upon seeing that squirrel had been to consider how cute it was.

It was immediately followed up with an urge to kill it and feel its hot blood over her hands and down her throat.

She tossed out the kunai at the creature as it seemed to consider heading her way, and watched as it fled with a hint of sadness.

She stared down at her hands and watched them shake.

"Wh…what happened to me?" she asked meekly to her two unconscious charges.

Her thoughts shifted as she looked up and saw forms in the weaker shadows, apparently unable to tell the difference between the deepest shadows and the shallow ones.

Why had she been denied graduation if she could tell such basic things better than any of these so-called genin?

She swallowed nervously, and felt the stirring of her second spirit. Again it was more intrusive in its aggressiveness than it had ever been in the past, and she could feel it stirring her muscles to action.

"I'll kill them now and be done with it, Cha!" it seemed to scream in the back of her head.

Sakura shook out her head, shoulders shaking with the effort of keeping the newly bloodthirsty part of her in check.

In the shadows, the Otogakure ninja watching her smiled darkly.

"Look at her shaking in fear at shadows," Zaku said. "Do you think she saw the paper bomb on that squirrel?"

"It looked more like she was panicking like it was a rat," Kin said. "Spoiled little girls like her are delicate."

"I'm not sure that's it," Dosu said, frowning. "Perhaps we'll find out when we go closer."

* * *

Lee paused in his patrol as he took in the form twenty falling leaves.

"This is it!" he thought to himself. "If I can catch all twenty of these leaves. I will be able to defeat Neji! If I cannot even catch one, however, I will forever be a hopeless loser."

He dived forward, lunging out at the leaves until all but when were in his grasp.

And then he turned at the last moment as he caught sight of a squirrel rolling about in pain as a fire worked up its back.

Sakura took a deep breath and tensed as the watchers came out of the shadows and she could read their headband protectors and see the Otogakure mark.

These were the ninja that Orochimaru was talking about then?

Her shoulders shook painfully as she tried to hold herself in.

"I can see you there," she called out. "Stay back. I don't want to hurt you."

"She doesn't want to hurt us," the taller man with spiky hair said. "What a brat."

"Just wake up Sasuke there," Dosu said with a laugh. "We want to fight him."

"Well he's not waking up!" Sakura shouted. "I know you're hear for that Orochimaru person, but you're going to have to wait."

The three otogakure flinched at the name that Sakura dropped.

"What's that bruise on Sasuke's neck?" she demanded. "Why are you foreign freaks after Sasuke?"

"What is he thinking, I wonder," Dosu said to his companions.

"What do I care," Zaku asked, shrugging. "I'm going to kill her and this Sasuke right now."

"Hold a moment," Dosu said, glancing toward the kunai Sakura had just tossed, embedded in one of the trees surrounding the clearing.

The one-eyed ninja then looked down toward the ground and looked for any sign of the traps he feared might be there. He found it in the form of freshly turned soil and transplanted grass. Looking up toward Sakura he smiled under his bandages.

"The point of a trap is for it not to be discovered," he said drawing a shiver from Sakura.

"How pathetic," Zaku said as the three ninja leaped forward to clear the suspect earth, and Sakura smirked as she drew kunai and cut the wire behind her.

A log swung down from where it hung slashing through the air toward the three.

"A log!" Zaku shouted.

"A second trap?" Dosu asked. "Watch out! Just kidding!"

He reached out with his gauntleted arm and shattered the log.

"You clearly have no talent!" he declared. "Someone like you should make more of an…"

He cut off his speech as the wires that had been holding the log on its path retracted backwards so fast that he could only barely track their passage and a cascade of kunai and shuriken rained down on the attacking ninja, cutting short their leap as they came down on the ground nursing several cuts.

The girl with the long black hair landed closest and Sakura felt herself surge to her feet at the sight of the older girl's blood.

Eyes wide opened in spite of her lack of desire to watch what she was about to do, Sakura charged forward and slashed upward with her kunai. Kin managed to dodge a lethal blow, but the kunai drew a long slash up her cheek and through one eye, sending the female ninja falling back with a scream.

Sakura was already twisting about to finish the assault when she was blown off of her feet and sent sprawling across the clearing back into the tree she'd hidden Naruto and Sasuke in.

"Little bitch!" Kin shouted. "My eye!"

The pink-haired ninja moved through a short series of hand signs as the ninjas came in to finish the job, letting a log replace her as she shifted in space, taking the risk of leaving the way open to Naruto and Sasuke.

"Where'd she," Zaku demanded before the pink-haired girl fell out of the sky onto his back and slammed her kunai down, missing his spine only do to a last second shove by the sound ninja.

Rolling forward off of her most recent target, Sakura shivered as the blood covering her hands thickened. The pleasure of it still sent her stomach roiling in disgust and she wondered just how it was possible to be both disgusted and pleased by an act.

In any case she was coming slowly to her feet as Dosu charged for her, only to stop cold as she turned to face him. His one visible eye widened heavily as he took in her face, getting his first up close look at it.

Sakura saw the expression and flinched, one hand rising to her face.

And then Lee jumped in to kick the man away.

"I'm not going to allow you to harm this woman," Lee declared proudly, taking a stance.

"Damn Konoha worms," Zaku declared reaching up toward his injured shoulder as he pulled himself upwards. "I'll kill you and the girl."

"No!" Dosu declared. "We're going!"

He eyed the girl and watched her eyes following his every movement with a frown. She had a predator's fixation.

"Take our scroll," he said holding it out toward Lee, but eyeing Sakura nervously.

Slowly, he watched the eagerness behind her face fall away until there was just the shivering girl left.

"Oh, certainly," Lee said, a bit confused. "But this would be hers."

He turned to face Sakura and the pink-haired girl turned swiftly about to prevent him seeing her face.

"Oh…give it to Sasuke-kun," she said, reaching up towards her eyes and feeling around them.

He would normally have no question about taking the girl, but given her eyes, he could no longer be certain. And even if he could take her, his team was not in a position to take her and the green-jump suited ninja, especially in the likelihood that this meant at least two other shinobi were nearby.

"What is Orochimaru doing?" he wondered to himself as he watched Sakura still.

"What the hell are you…" Zaku started to say.

Dosu grabbed him and shoved him about.

"We're going, help Kin," Dosu said. "We'll come at Sasuke later, but not right now."

Lee, confused watched them walk away and then turned toward Sakura again to give her the scroll only to find her gone.

* * *

Neji blinked at what he saw as Ryoko Saotome walked toward him with a stride and posture that would have implied that she was perfectly healthy and attending some sort of outdoor society function for the aristocracy. There shouldn't have been much way for her to sit up, much less stand or walk. Pain messages should have been flooding through her given the number of muscle tears and minute cuts he could see in her body.

At his side, even Tenten winced as she took in the blisters she could see covering the girl. Had they seen before she'd started accelerating the healing, they would probably have both been more impressed.

And yet, she walked straight and proper, though very slowly, right up to where he stood before moving to sit into seiza and bowing, which brought a wince from Tenten and an arched eyebrow from Neji, who was noting that, technically, such a bow was only to be directed at one of the main branch of the Hyuuga family.

"Ano…Hyuuga-sama," she said quietly. "M…might I ask you…if you have seen Uchiha-san or Uzumaki-san..I…I f..fear that I may have become…separated somehow."

"We've also been separated from one of our team members," Neji noted.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Tenten asked.

Ryoko swallowed nervously and nodded.

"H…hai," she said with a pleasant smile. "B..but I..I must be appropriately respectful."

"What would you do if you were seeing the Fire Lord?" Tenten asked under her breath.

* * *

Sasuke watched across the scene of his parents dead bodies to see his younger self staring there.

"I had no power, so could only watch. If I'd had the power, I could have stopped it."

"If I had had the power."

* * *

Ryoko slowly reached out toward the sticks in her hand as Lee explained the scene he had stumbled on and the pink-haired girl he'd found there as well. It didn't take much more than thinking about the fact that she hadn't been around to protect them for an orange flame to spark in her hand and curl up the stick.

She let the now burning stick down into the fire and watched as the corrupt fire burned out and was replaced with regular fire that caught onto the rest of the firewood.

That was too easy.

She couldn't let those fits come so easy. Especially with what she remembered from the fight and how hard it had been to think of anything but direct force. Like a woman flailing about with a broom to kill a rat. There was no strategy to it and it was easily deceived…as she had been.

She drew out a kettle from…somewhere and set it out to boil as she prepared a tray and several cups.

Tenten glanced over and saw the teakettle, provoking a double take as she tried to figure out where the kettle and tea set had come from. Not to mention that it looked like the injured girl was planning to serve them tea and sitting close to a fire despite the sort of pain someone with burns had from being near high heat.

"This…this girl is like Lee," she said quietly. "Or Guy-sensei."

* * *

Sakura stopped as she found a calm pool of water and bent down look into the reflection formed on the surface.

Her hand started shaking again as she reached up toward her face and touched one of the purplish colorations lying along the underside of her eyebrows. Below them were her eyes, still green, but now slitted like that man's.

Like that creature.

"What did he do to me?" she asked.


	16. Infection

"This isn't good," one of the chunin said as he looked over the corpse they had just found.

"Makes sense though," another noted. "We didn't have any lopsided teams go in the test, and we still haven't found the extra. Unless they achieved what they wanted in the first exam, it makes sense that they'd eliminate someone."

"This is odd," the first noted pointing to an impact on the man's head. "This hit here was post-mortum, very post-mortum."

"With the way he has no face you think that's odd? Maybe something hit him after he was hidden," a third chunin noted. "In any case, let's call Anko in, she's proctor in charge of this part of the test."

* * *

Anko frowned as she arrived at the body and felt a twinge in her neck as she took in the face melted away to a blank slate.

"He's in the training ground then," Anko said.

"Mitarashi-sama?" one of the chunin asked in confusion.

"This is clearly that man's work," Anko muttered to herself.

The chunin glanced toward each other questionably, asking silently what she meant. Then Anko moved into her characteristic energy.

"Get in contact with the Anbu and have them send at least two teams into the exam area," she snapped."

"Two teams?" the chunin repeated.

"No arguing," Anko snapped. "Just do it. I'm heading into the exam area."

And with that she took off at a run with a furious determined look on her face.

"What is he doing here?" Anko wondered. "What is that man planning?"

The team from the Village Hidden in the Valley stood in their camp and looked from one to another.

* * *

"If Kodachi is here," one of them said, a young man with a wild look worthy of the Inuzuka clan. "I have not seen her or signs of her power."

"She is subtle," another said, a taller man in his late thirties, probably amongst the oldest participants in the exam. "And she's learned a hard lesson about sticking out."

"Just what I'd expect from a pathetic outsider," the third said, a stout short man who gave something of the impression of a badger. "Just do your job and stay out of the way when it comes time for a real battle. Then you'll see what separates the Musk from such outsiders and technique thieves as you."

"But of course," the second man said with tight bow. "Then I would suggest we head in that direction."

He pointed toward the direction where he'd felt a flicker of chi manipulation along in that direction. It had been a bit...unhealthy towards the end, and, if it was as far away as he suspected, that was just the slightest bit...

...interesting.

"Good," one of the two musk said. "Thyme and I will move on ahead, stay here, you'll just slow us down, catch up if you can."

"That's fine with me," the taller man said. "I'll just stay out of the way until then."

He watched as they left swiftly into the trees and then turned slowly around to face the burned and torn face on the figure that stepped out of the trees then.

"You didn't tell your comrades about me this time," Orochimaru said casually. "Though I don't suppose I should be surprised."

"I'm merely a hireling," the other man said with a shrug. "Are you who I presume you to be?"

"That would depend on who you presume I am," Orochimaru responded.

"Well, I presume that you're the S-Class criminal, Orochimaru," the man said. "I might be a chi-adept, but my normal trade is in bounty hunting and you are quite well known."

"Well, I see," Orochimaru said. "Should I be expecting you to make an attempt?"

"Even if I had the channel for that," the other said. "I would not be foolish enough to try something so attention getting now. I have another job currently."

"Well, it is good to know that you have an understanding of your limits, Kashou," Orochimaru said, drawing a widening of the eyes followed by a tight smile from the other man.

"Your reputation isn't for nothing," he said.

"Without saying too much shall we come to an agreement?" Orochimaru asked.

"Assume my employers have an interest in tracking a blind woman," Kashou said. "They would not be upset to see her killed."

"Then that is of little concern to me," Orochimaru said. "But what is your interest?"

"Suffice to say that it not going to interfere with the chaos your minions are looking to cause," the other said. "I can secure that on my own and I'm sure my efforts will only cause the Konoha shinobi another headache for you to exploit."

"If you do get in the way," Orochimaru noted.

"Then you'll be sure to destroy me," Kashou said. "As I said, I'm merely a hireling, I'm not going to step in the way of a force of nature for that."

"You show wisdom," Orochimaru said. "Let's hope that we have no cause to end this agreement."

And with that he vanished into a burst of purple fire that gave the chi of the area a slick and slightly nauseous feel to it. Without being a chi-user, the foul man couldn't have a truly deep impact on the chi flows, but it was still unpleasant.

Kashou shook his head clear maintaining a smile and breathing out a sigh of relief.

"Now to find a Saotome and see if she's the real deal," he said before leaping into the trees away from the direction he'd sent the Musk.

From the shadows, Orochimaru watched and stepped out considering.

"Saotome?" he asked. "Interesting."

* * *

"If you are fine," Neji said. "We shall take this scroll and be on our way."

"The pink-haired girl did most of the fighting and asked that we give it to Sasuke," Lee reminded.

"There is no one else here to claim it," Neji said. "The girl you mention is not part of their team and has forfeited her claim to you. It is ours."

Ryoko paused in refilling everybody's tea.

"Ano..." she said with a polite cough.

The Hyuuga frowned and turned to face the girl.

"Is there something you want to say?" he asked.

"Ano, sumimasen," she said. "Ih...is that a challenge?"

"What if it were?" Neji asked. "You do not have the strength to meet any challenge yet."

"Wai!" Ryoko declared, straightening briefly before finishing pouring the tea. "Hai! Hai! As soon as tea is finished."

Neji stared at the girl.

"You should not place this challenge girl," Neji warned darkly.

"Y..you challenged m..me, Hyuuga-sama," Ryoko said, blinking. "I..I am Ryoko Saotome of the Saotome sc...Saotome family. A...all cha..challenges must be faced and d..defeated."

"You expect you can defeat me?" Neji asked darkly.

"H..hai," Ryoko said simply, sipping her tea and then bowing respectfully to Neji.

Neji frowned and started to turn to face her.

"Ryoko-chan!" Lee interrupted. "You have a challenge to answer from me first."

Ryoko blinked and then gasped, eyes flashing orange briefly as she recalled the obligation.

"Ha..hai, Lee-sama," she said, flushing. "Ano...I...I...su..sumimasen. Hyuuga-sama, I...I shall have to answer your ch..challenge later."

"Then I propose," Lee said. "That we should have a proper challenge."

"Ano?" Ryoko said blinking.

"When we find another genin team," Lee declared. "Which ever of us can strike the enemy the most shall win the right to this scroll."

Ryoko seemed to think about this for a moment and then smiled.

"Wai!" she declared. "I shall not fail."

"I warn you, that you are in competition with the Green Beast of Konoha," Lee declared. "You shall be hard pressed to match me in battle."

"H..hai," Ryoko declared with a particularly eager expression in her face. "I am Ryoko Saotome...and I cannot lose."

Neji sighed and shook his head. At his side, Tenten stared and shook her head wondering if Lee understood that would mean there were enough scrolls for both teams, depending on what sort of scroll the next enemy team had.

"Are either of them even thinking of the scrolls right now?" Tenten asked.

* * *

Sakura set herself against a tree, trying to ignore the drying blood on her hands and hoping to disappear from view entirely as she watched Ryoko serving tea and talking to the other Konoha ninjas that had come upon them.

In the time between when she had left and Ryoko had slowly not limped into camp with the other two older shinobi, she'd had another encounter with ninja that had ended badly. Once again, they had given some sort of threat, and she had reacted.

Over-reacted in her opinion. Or at least half her opinion.

She was digging her hands into the wood of the branch underneath her in order to keep from moving forward.

Maybe it was worse right now because she had a personal issue with Ryoko, but she didn't want the girl killed. She only wanted her to know her place.

But at the moment, she didn't trust herself to know where to stop.

Instead, she turned away before Sasuke could wake up. There was no telling what she would do when that happened.

She leaped away not heeding much of anything save a need to be away, counter to that part of her that wanted to have it out with Ryoko. At least the other voice wasn't saying about killing Ryoko, but she still couldn't trust herself.

The pink-haired kunoichi moved recklessly until she was too tired to go further, or at least so tired she thought she couldn't go further.

She stopped to sit down and take a deep breath, and smelled...

...SMELLED!...

...the people following her.

It wasn't anything she wouldn't have smelled normally, not the way she was starting to realize that she could see better in the dark than she used to be able to. But she was aware of it, and she wouldn't have been before.

"Whoever's out there, stay away from me," she called out. "I don't have any scrolls and...it's...it's not safe."

Someone stepped out into view.

"Looks like we have a little rabbit whose lost her team," he said. "Let's say we see about playing."

Sakura stood up and swallowed as she listened to the sadistic nature of the voice. This wasn't like the other team that had made the misfortune of threatening her. There was real malice.

She hesitated as they came in, but the leash was slipping whether or not she wanted it to or not.

"Please," Sakura said, one more time.

* * *

Shikamaru turned a corner and froze upon seeing the broken and shattered form of a Takigakure ninja staring sightlessly up into the sky. He staggered back in surprised for a moment looked up into trees.

"EEE!" Ino shrieked as she turned the corner and joined Shikamaru.

"What is it did you see a..." Choji froze as he turned the corner himself and saw the body standing there.

"Quiet down!" Shikamaru snapped in a low voice.

"Is she..." Choji started to ask.

"Dead," Ino said with a chill, looking up toward trees. "She fell, think it was an accident."

"Not unless she was accidentally stabbed first," Shikamaru said. "And where's her team, did they just leave her like this? No, some other team killed them and took their scroll."

"I don't think so," Choji said, pulling a scroll out from where it rolled into the nearby brushes.

"You mean there's some lunatic out here just killing people for the hell of it?" Ino asked, nearly frantic.

"And on top of that," Shikamaru said taking out his team's scroll. "It's the wrong kind of scroll for us."

"Let's get out of here," Ino said.

Shikamaru nodded and stood up.

"Let's take the scroll with us," he said as they picked up and moved on, cautiously.

* * *

Anko could feel Orochimaru nearby, but she hadn't yet found the man. He was hiding and doing it well, but that only made sense. The longer it was taking her to hunt for the man, the more she was realizing that it was very likely that he'd have to want her to find him.

The Anbu teams had made contact with her early the previous morning, and now they were all looking for the intruder, with the possibility that it was Orochimaru or one of his disciples.

The fast teams should have been reaching the tower by now and she was going to need to be there soon. To make sure everything went appropriately for the teams that were there waiting for the next phase of the test.

No sense giving the over-eager a chance to assassinate their competition in between tests.

She was going to give the search one more hour before leaving it to the Anbu teams, and had already told them as such.

The sounds of screaming and fighting rose up periodically in a number of places, but it wasn't giving her any clues. That was normal for the test, after all.

* * *

Ino and Shikamaru discussed what to do as Choji sat in a low tree branch above them snacking.

"Is that Sakura?" he asked.

"Huh?" Ino and Shikamaru asked.

"What would Sakura be doing here?" Ino asked. "She's not even on a team."

"Well, she was watching the nervous girl talk to Neji and Lee from last year's rookies," Choji said. "But now she's off and running that way."

Ino and Shikamaru leaped up join him and watched caught a last look at a pink-haired girl leaping off through the trees in the distance.

"What the hell is she doing out here?" Ino gasped. "She could get hurt in a place like this."

"And we can't," Shikamaru asked with a sigh and shaking his head. "We'll have to get her and make sure she stays with us until we get out here. I'll bet she's trying to help Sasuke. What a pain."

"Really, to do something so reckless just to impress _my_ Sasuke," Ino said, shaking her head.

Shikamaru turned and gave her a narrowed look.

They went off in pursuit of their former classmate, without apparently gaining any ground on her. Slipping higher into the branches for a better view of the area ahead of them, and Shikamaru froze as he hit the branch first and saw what was happening ahead.

* * *

Sakura again had that impression of two sets of emotions in her head as the first ninja came in at her.

He came in with a short wakizashi rather than a kunai and slashed out at her. In a move she'd only witnessed or read about, Sakura sidestepped the attack and caught the attacker's weapon hand with her own. The attacker's own overconfidence made it easier for her to disarm him and take the weapon for her own.

Sakura knew that ninja were expected to kill, and expected that killing this one was truly necessary to her survival. But the brutal pleasure she felt at driving his weapon into his own chest, slipping between the rib cage to impale the heart was nothing she expected or wanted.

Turning her eyes away from the look on the man's face as she twisted the knife, she found his team members coming in, faces enraged. At least until she snapped the wakizashi blade in her hand and tossed it across the field to strike into the chest of one of the two attackers.

The last paused and stared in turn at each of his comrades and the scared-seeming pink-haired girl that had just killed them, shortly before a predatorial smile replaced Sakura's expression of disgust and terror for just a brief second before she launched herself forward at the faltering third ninja.

He recovered himself briefly as Sakura pounced and he slashed outward with a kunai knife stabbing it into the pink-haired girl's hip as she landed on him. He had a close up look of green-slitted eyes that looked at him with fear and pity or a slight desire and blood lust.

Then she started to tear him apart.

"No, stop it," she shouted helplessly at the same time she was thinking. "They would have killed me. So I killed them. They deserve this."

If it was just we or us or you, Sakura might have been able to latch onto the idea of someone using a possession jutsu on her as a tool. But everything that came, even the anomalous ones were...were hers.

As the last ninja died brutally screaming, Sakura shivered violently, forcing herself up and away from the dead bodies and trying to limp into the trees.

* * *

"Did, did you see that?" Ino asked in shock.

"I did," Shikamaru said weakly, trying to process what he'd just seen.

"When did Sakura learn how to do...that?" Choji asked.

"Oh, this is a real a pain," Shikamaru said, before turning toward Ino. "What do we do?"

"That's...that's not Sakura," Ino said. "It couldn't be. If it is...Why are you asking me?"

"Because it's Sakura," Shikamaru told her pointedly.

Ino swallowed and thought back to not so many years previous, before she and Sakura had become enemies. She remembered protecting the pink-haired girl from bullies, and doing everything together for several years.

Before they'd both decided that they like Sasuke.

What she'd just seen wasn't the Sakura she knew. There had to be an explanation for this.

"Well," she said. "We are a capture team, aren't we? It's just...that person."

"Right," Shikamaru said. "Let's do this."

* * *

Sakura reached her feet despite the pain, surprised that any part of her could still think clearly or think to stand after that injury.

She was proven right when her leg refused to obey her desires and simply crashed her back to the ground. As she hit her back, which still was inflamed with whatever had been done to it, she gasped out, almost forgetting not to scream and draw attention.

In trying to stand again, she put most of her weight on the good leg and hopped her way towards a try in order to fashion herself a crutch.

And the knife was still stuck in her leg.

She reached a fallen log and stopped there to sit and catch her breath and give the wound better attention.

The pink-haired ninja reached to the kunai in her hip and carefully removed it with a quick, straight pull that came with a short yell. Immediately one hand was pressing down on the wound and the other was reaching for something to make a bandage with.

In looking up, she saw Ino stepping out into the open.

"Who are you?" Ino demanded angrily. "Drop Sakura's face and show yourself."

"Ino," Sakura said, feeling the viciousness and desire for blood rising up within her again. "Go away. Now! Something happened to me! I...I can't stop myself. When they threaten me...it keeps happening."

Her hand held tightly around the kunai she had just drawn from her own leg.

"Please, go away!" Sakura said, starting to stand up.

"I'm not buying that, psycho," Ino snapped bitterly. "Sakura's not even supposed to be here."

"It's happening again," Sakura said, glancing around. "Go, go! I'll be killing you, Shikamaru and Choji next."

"I am no..." Ino started to say just as Sakura lunged outward toward her, kunai in hand.

The crazed pink-haired apprentice got barely halfway to Ino when she stopped cold. Snarling for a moment and then breathing in relief, she had looked down and seen how much thicker her shadow was and following that to see Shikamaru standing there maintaining his shadow possession.

"Well, Shadow possession," Shikamaru said. "A success. Okay, Ino, now!"

"Who ever you are," Ino said. "We're taking care of you right now."

The blonde genin frowned as she formed a circular hand-sign and aimed for the trapped Sakura.

* * *

Ino's original plan was to force her way into the imposter's mind and force them to break the henge surrounding them and giving them Sakura's appearance.

That proven she could wait for Shikamaru and Choji to restrain the body and then leave so that they could figure out what the hell was going on.

Of course, what she found as she shoved the controlling consciousness out of the front of the mind threw that plan out the window.

She didn't have all the secrets of the Yamanaka jutsu, and only usually caught glimpses of mindscapes, but she was trained in resisting mental attacks at least a little bit, and that meant that she could form a mindscape if it was needed.

When she pushed into Sakura's mind, she found such a chaotic mix of emotions and impulses that she was reflexively drawn into a mindscape.

At first it seemed the standard, featureless blank darkness most untrained minds held, but she quickly saw minute white lines starting to spread and branch out along the blank walls, and a brief look at one seemed to find white, reptilian scales that were slowly spreading outward and around.

And it felt unstable, really unstable...on the edge of collapsing.

But in the back of the mindscape she found the consciousness this space belonged to.

A familiar pink-haired girl with long hair that Ino had known for quite some years. Only now there was large white snake coiled around her, it's jaws clamped onto the back of her head, as if it was trying to swallow her up. Blood was flowing out of the inflicted wounds down Sakura's face and onto her shoulders as the rest of the snake wrapped about Sakura's form, though not all of the snake seemed to be there.

What was worse, Ino watched and it seemed as if, in some places, the snake and Sakura seemed almost to share the skin where it touched her.

A thrill of fear came over Ino for a moment, with this jutsu, what happened to the target would be reflected back at her. Even mental trauma to a small extent was reflected. She'd had a taste of that earlier when she'd experienced Ryoko's intense fear.

If she stayed here, then that snake would be coming around her next.

"You don't belong here!" "What's going on?"

Both statements were in Sakura's voice and Ino watched as another Sakura, a vague sort of outline of her form, stepped out of the first. This one wrapped up in more of the snake's coils, and standing like a giant in the mindscape.

The second Sakura rushed toward Ino and the blonde Shinobi pulled herself away from the attack, stubbornly holding on contact as the inner Sakura tried to overpower her.

Beyond just getting ejected, the inner Sakura had been...bonded with the snake more than the other had. Ino had little doubt that touching her or letting herself be touched would be a very bad thing.

At least the snake was tripping her up and keeping the second Sakura from easily keeping up with Ino.

"What the hell!" Ino shouted. "Sakura is that really you?"

"He did something to me!" "Get out of my head, Ino!"

"Me out of your head, what about the big snake thing eating your billboard head?" Ino demanded.

"Snake?"

That was something both Sakuras seemed to agree on.

Ino grimaced and tried to take in all the various things she had discovered since entering Sakura's mind.

First, it wasn't an imposter, it was Sakura. As crazy as it seemed, the psycho killer whose work they'd stumbled on was her old friend turned rival, Sakura.

Second, she had two spirits, a phenomena that the Yamanaka clan tried to keep quiet. Ino herself didn't know the particulars of how it happened or what it meant, she just knew that most people eventually grew out of it, the two spirits merging into one over time.

Third, Sakura's two spirits weren't thinking along the same thoughts, which meant they were diverging, which was bad for both Sakura and any Yamanaka that tried to get in her head. Such as Ino herself.

Fourth, Sakura had been massively screwed with, body and soul. Fifth, one of her spirits was...sort of aware of what was going on, the other had no clue.

And she wasn't trained for this sort of thing. At least not yet.

The best she could do was re-instance the push part of the mind-switch technique.

Or run away.

Inner Sakura tried to flank her again and Ino shifted around trying to aim a shot at where the coils of the snake stretched from one Sakura to the other.

She envisioned an open door in the back of Sakura's mindscape, gathered the chakra she'd carried with her and ducked under the inner Sakura's angry form to get in position and thrust forward with her own mind.

The snake, stretched between two spirits, and apparently heedless of the second, didn't have the sort of grip it would normally have on one soul, and that was probably the only way this worked at all.

It's coils folded around where Ino's push slammed into it, ripping painfully away from both Sakuras and leaving bleeding patches where the snake and Sakura had started to become one.

Instantly, Ino envisioned slamming the door shut and locking it, leaving the snake swirling in the back behind the door she had created and pushing violently against it. Ino pushed herself against the barrier and pushed against it as she took in the two Sakuras.

One had fallen to her knees and was holding herself shivering. Parts of her were still snakish, mostly from those patches that had merged already, but the infection seemed...minimal for the moment.

The other was stalking toward Ino now, cracking her knuckles. She looked a lot more snakish than the other Sakura, but also a lot more pained by Ino's shoving of the snake in the back.

Here lay the problem with the mind switch jutsu against something holding two spirits. Ino could only deal with one spirit at a time.

"Hey!" Ino said. "You push me out now, and this snake gets out."

She jabbed a thumb back of her shoulder toward the barrier behind her.

"Stop trying to pull that," Inner Sakura said. "You don't belong here."

"If I was trying to pull anything," Ino said. "I'd have pushed you in the back, not some imaginary snake."

The inner Sakura considered what she said briefly.

"Fine, hold it there and stay out of my way," Sakura demanded.

The vague spirit started to shift forward toward conscious control and Ino reacted quickly.

"Hey!" she shouted. "When I leave, the door leaves too! If I'm back here keeping the door closed, then I'm getting tired quicker and I'll have to lead."

"I have to get away from you and your team." "I have to destroy those that want to hurt me."

Okay, they were back to speaking two different statements in tandem again.

"Hold the door closed, and I'll take care of your body," Ino promised, eyeing the area of the Mindscape as it started to rumble around her. "I swear on my love for Sasuke-kun that I won't let anything happen to you."

"I can't trust myself." "You better not pull anything."

The inner Sakura stepped forward to lean against the door and Ino cautiously darted around her to move toward the Sakura whom Ino was more familiar with.

While the Sakura against the door was acting stronger and more sure of itself, it was bleeding more than this one was, and looked more...tainted by the snake. But this more normal Sakura was shaking heavier and acting more wounded.

"I killed all those people," both Sakuras noted.

"I didn't have to kill some of them." "Think about that before you betray me."

Ino was getting headaches trying to sort out the discordant emotions and ideas as she beant next to the more colorful Sakura.

"Don't worry about it," Ino said trying to keep Sakura's attention. "My Dad can fix it."

She hoped so at least.

"Can he?" "I don't want it fixed."

* * *

Shikamaru stared as Sakura's eyes finally opened after ten minutes. He was thankful that the pink-haired girl hadn't been trying to resist, or else he would have run out of chakra a long time before.

The green, slitted eyes underneath the purplish marks under her eyebrows.

"I've got it, Shikamaru," the girl said. "But we have a problem."

"'It'?" Shikamaru repeated. "That is Sakura then?"

"Yeah, she's got some sort of...snake...thing in here trying to eat her mind," Ino said. "I've got it locked away for now, but I can't leave or it gets out and..."

"And psycho Sakura," Shikamaru said, shaking his head.

"Are you all right in there?" Choji asked nervously.

"Not particularly," Ino said, thinking about how fragile the mindscape had seemed.

"Okay," Shikamaru said. "This is what we do, we've got the scrolls we need, so we can get into the tower. We get there and tell whoever is waiting for us to grab help. Get your Dad to come and take over for you or something."

A new figure jumped down between them and stood above the pink-haired form Ino was currently inhabiting. The three looked up to see the proctor that had given them the instructions on this segment of the test.

"Good plan," Anko said. "I've got something a bit more immediate in mind, though."

She bent down to look into Sakura's eyes, with Ino looking out from them. The woman frowned as she took in the features that had already changed on the pink-haired student.

Orochimaru had found a new jutsu it seemed. The special jonin frowned and wondered how many people had died before this one was perfected.

Or if it even was perfected.

"By the way?" Ino asked. "Who scratched up Sakura's back while I was in there? It hurts like hell."

"Your back's bleeding some too," Choji noted. "Think it was an already there injury."

Anko frowned and moved around behind Sakura's body.

"Let me check something," she said, starting to pull the edge of the pink-haired girl's shirt up, and immediately pulling it down as she caught sight of a few characters virtually carved into Sakura's back.


	17. Worries

Ryoko froze as she spoke to Lee and shivered noticeably, turning about to look behind her toward where Naruto and Sasuke were both lying with towels on their foreheads.

The heaviness of the chi flowing out of him had grown...more so and she could feel it creeping out of Sasuke to fill the air around him, pushing outward.

Behind her Neji also turned his look away from the anomalous girl and his own teammate and their unnecessary challenge. He felt the pressure of an intense chakra and frowned, casually activating his byakugan again to look over towards the source.

Dark and cluttered chakra whirled about the young Uchiha's form. Lee and Ten-Ten, noticing the attention of the other two, turned to look toward Sasuke and though they could not see the chakra itself, they could see the spreading of what looked to be a strange sort of bruise over Sasuke's body over the left side.

For his part, Sasuke sat up and looked about, immediately noting a lack of apparent hostilities as everyone was focused on him and were apparently drinking tea from some of Ryoko's cups.

"Where's Sakura?" he asked sharply.

"Ano..." Ryoko said, a bit confused. "Haruna-san is not on any teams, Uchiha-san."

"I know that, but she was here," he said.

"Was she that pink-haired beauty?" Lee asked then.

"That was her," Sasuke said.

"I found her defending you not more than an hour or two past," Lee said. "But she left once your attackers saw fit to leave. I don't know where she went after that."

"This isn't the time for someone to be wandering alone," Tenten said. "Especially not someone who doesn't have a genin team to support her. How'd she even get past the proctors?"

"These attackers," Sasuke asked. "Where they of the Otokagure?"

"I believe so, yes," Lee said.

"Then I'm going after them," he said firmly, and started to move to look for tracks.

"Ano..." Ryoko said. "Sh...shouldn't we wait for Uzumaki-san?"

Sasuke hesitated, remembering Naruto coming back and bravely, or stupidly, attacking that freak Orochimaru the night before.

"Fine, but we're going after them as soon as possible," Sasuke said coldly, the strange bruises slowly receding as it looked like he wasn't going to get to expend that power immediately.

"There is no need," Lee declared. "They left behind their scroll and Ryoko-chan and I have determined a contest to see which team shall acquire the scroll."

"What?" Sasuke asked, before turning toward Neji and nodding toward Lee. "You've got one of those too?"

Neji grumbled and nodded.

* * *

"Continue the Test."

The words cut into Sakura Haruna's back were as clear as could be even beyond their direct meaning.

One of the medical shinobi turned about and walked out of the room to address the Hokage where he stood beside Anko. Another special jonin had taken her place proctoring the remainder of the second exam for now as the Hokage asked for her presence.

"We took this out of her via stomach pump," the medic said, showing a partially digested snake. "That's the source of the infection."

"Is this the end of it?" the Hokage asked.

"She is showing an erratic rate of mutation," the shinobi said. "The eyes and facial marks are probably only the first signs. We can hold it off, but truly stabilizing it is beyond us. The bulk of the infectious material has been removed, so it will be slow, but all we've done is delay the end result."

"And that is?" the Hokage asked.

"Most likely?" the medic said, looking toward Sakura. "Insanity, pain and death."

The Hokage nodded.

"That bastard was always looking for the perfect genesplice," Anko muttered bitterly.

Sarutobi remained quiet as to his own thoughts on the matter and turned to look at Inoichi Yamanaka as the man came out of the room. The blonde jonin looked toward the medical ninja and Anko, remaining silent as he did so.

"I'll be heading back to the se..." Anko started to say, getting the Yamanaka's hint.

"Stay here, Anko," Hokage said. "You, go to the jonin lounge, look for a blind woman and her servant and tell them that the Hokage requests their presence."

"Yes, Sandaime Hokage," the man said quickly as he hurried out.

That done, the Hokage turned toward Inoichi.

"Anko is going to be taking charge of this girl for the foreseeable future," he said. "She needs to know what you found. In that matter, I suspect that Inoichi is going to be revealing something he considers a clan secret, Anko, give that due consideration. I imagine this has something to do with her two spirits?"

Inoichi simply stared openly at the Hokage and wondered just how the old man had learned about that. He hadn't even known that the Haruna girl had two spirits until his daughter had told him.

"Two...what?" Anko asked.

The Hokage glanced toward Inoichi and gestured for him to explain.

"It's an occasional phenomena," he said. "Twins are conceived, but one does not survive to birth. If it is early enough, the living twin absorbs the dead one. This sometimes includes a second spirit."

"The ghost of her unborn twin sister is possessing her?" Anko asked.

"Not quite," the Hokage said. "They typically do not recognize each other as separate entities, for all intents and purposes they are the same, and as they grow older, they become more and more unified. I'm guessing this has upset the normal routine?"

Grimacing again at the man's knowledge.

"They still recognize each others' thoughts as their own," Inoichi said. "But they're not even closely agreeing any longer. The result is confusion and dissonance that's making everything else worse. Fortunately, while it's bad, it would have been worse with anybody else."

"Why's that?" Anko asked.

"Because then the snake would have had a complete hold over whoever was infected," the blonde said. "Not my daughter or even I would have been able to separate them, much less seal them away."

"What was done to her?" Anko demanded, narrowing her eyes.

"Orochimaru didn't do this over the course of a couple of hours," he said. "He's been in her head several times over at least three days. There are several genjutsu blocks throughout her mind, most to keep her from going for help it seems or from figuring out that she was even being manipulated."

"She's our extra," Anko said. "He slipped her in as a distraction, and now we're focused on controlling and helping her so we can't interrupt him. What about her behavior afterwords? Genjutsu?"

"No, her aggression has been enhanced and her memories are feeding her muscle memory," the mind reader said. "Something of a poor man's Sharingan, I guess. Not much use without the ability to see chakra, but it lets her perform taijutsu to a much higher degree than she used to have."

"So the killing was her choice?" the Hokage asked.

"Yes and no," Inoichi said. "Her second spirit has been more affected than the primary, and it probably feels like it made the decision, but as long as the snake had a hold, the instincts had free run of the body."

"Can the snake be removed?" the Hokage asked.

"Lessened, weakened, tamed," Inoichi said. "Removed, no. But if the medical shinobi can control the physical mutation, my clan can help her with the mental problems."

"Who's in control right now?" the Hokage asked, looking out toward the sedated ninja.

"The aggressive personality," Inoichi said, glancing the same way. "Sakura herself is too shell-shocked to take charge."

Anko didn't need the man to say anything more to know that he didn't consider that healthy either.

"Is there a difference as to who's in control?" Anko asked.

"The second spirit isn't a full person, just an echo of the dead twin as imprinted by the living one," he said. "It's a caricature, not a fully functioning identity. Extended control by it is dangerous. It's not equipped to do more than spur the primary on some things. Control like this is an emergency measure."

The Hokage nodded.

"Do what you can for her," he said, dismissing the man.

Anko waited until he was gone.

"I'm in charge of her?" she repeated.

"As of the moment I said it," he explained. "No one here knows better what it is to go through what she has. I'll speak to her parents with you."

"Thanks for that, sir," she noted.

* * *

Kashou took up at some distance and pulled himself into a shady patch nestled between the closely grown trunks of two of the great trees, one of which was great and healthy while the other had died the expense of the successful tree.

It was a place steeped in the flow of yin within the plethora of yang that filled the great and lively forest. Pushing himself back into that niche served to conceal him in the energies that were counter to the wild and savage abandon of the plants and animals throughout the forest.

He sat down and entered a stance, letting the flow of chi through him with each breath, adjusting himself to breathe in time with the trickle of yin he had immersed himself in.

And then he let his soul ride out on the currents, holding tight to the chi that flowed into and out of his body.

Swiftly, he let his mind be pulled along the currents of chi drawing closer to what he was seeking, switching from one thread to another and remembering always the path back to his own body.

He came to a tree killed by unhealthy poisonous chi, radiating out from an impact of immense physical force and the touch of some sort of fire.

From there it was easy to be drawn toward the one who had done this.

And what he found confirmed the rumors.

In most people, either the Yin or the Yang were dominant naturally. Someone with training to could flush one sort of chi for another, but it would merely alter which was dominant for the moment. Only masters with years of study reached such a level that they could hold usable levels of both yin and yang at the same time.

Masters that had done long study and a handful of particularly lucky bloodlines. Though even they needed training to make any use out of that natural trend.

"Well, well," he said as he let himself drift back towards his body. "Someone will be interested in this. It seems there's an extra Saotome walking about."

* * *

Kiba paced back and forth in the waiting room, eyes moving toward the three Sand Siblings occasionally that had come in after they had. Akamaru had been really nervous since the Sand, especially the center kid, had arrived. For his own part, he could smell blood thick and heavy about the young brown-haired kid with the black circles around his eyes.

That wasn't something that concerned him too much. His team had already set one potentially lethal trap taking advantage of the local terrain, and he as yet had no idea whether the team they'd tripped up had survived the encounter or not. Death was a part of this test and a part of being ninja.

But Akamaru was nervous around the kid, and that was strange.

Hinata was similarly worried from her position, pushing her finger tips together and looking down at her feet. A lot of people wouldn't see anything different from her normal attitude, but it was apparent to Kiba and even Shino that the girl was worrying more than the usual amount.

Unfortunately, once they'd checked in, they hadn't been allowed to check back out again, and potential spill the beans on such things as what was in the scrolls and the like.

It had been almost a full day since they had turned in their scrolls, and so far the only other team to arrive was the Sand team.

"Oi, what a pain," a familiar voice called out from elsewhere in the tower.

Steps approached from down the hallway drawing attention from the others waiting there. Hinata, Kiba and Shino, through their various senses, allies and the like knew who was coming already, though they each betrayed a trace of surprise as Ino came into the waiting room, looking somewhat less victorious than she would normally have been at this point.

"How did you wimps get here so fast?" Kiba practically demanded.

"We found some scrolls," Ino said dryly, very much out of character.

"You found 'some' scrolls?" Kiba repeated.

"Hai," Choji said. "Sakura was..."

Ino made a swift, harsh noise and turned to glare at her comrade, crossing her arms. Choji stopped talking with a look of embarrassment.

"Uh, sorry Ino," he said.

"Sakura?" Hinata said, lifting her head in surprise.

"Nevermind," Shikamaru said. "It's too much of a pain to explain it."

"Hey, where was your gate?" Kiba asked.

Ino shrugging at that pointed vaguely in the direction that they had come from.

"Then you were over around where Team 7 was?" Kiba asked.

Hinata perked up at that.

"Oh, did you see Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked quickly.

"Hmm? Wasn't he beaten up when we saw him?" Choji asked.

Hinata stepped up to her feet and started looking toward the door.

"Relax, he's fine," Shikamaru said. "Your cousin's team is watching out for them last we saw and that Saotome girl was up. I'd imagine they're not too far behind us if they haven't had too much trouble."

Ino walked over toward Choji and started leaning into his face snapping at him in something of a shrewish manner.

"What are you thinking?" she snapped. "Are you not a ninja? Don't you know how to keep a secret? Are you going to just blurt things out in front of everybody?"

"But they asked and..." Choji protested.

"Idiot!" Ino snapped bitterly. "You don't just blurt out news like that. What if they're worried about them or something? I mean, I know it's Naruto, but Sasuke's there too, and you're going to make her think he's hurt!"

"But, wasn't he?" Choji asked before Ino smacked him on the head.

"Idiot, keep your mouth closed!" she snapped.

Shikamaru looked toward Ino and shook his head before turning back toward Hinata and the oddly relieved Kiba.

"Anyway, I guess we just hang out here until the five days is done," Shikamaru said moving to a bench and lying down on it. "So, I'm going to nap for the next few days and maybe watch the TV in cafeteria."

"You're a lazy one aren't you?" the blonde leaf woman noted harshly.

Shikamaru shrugged and eyed the woman with the hard expression on her face as she looked at him in a trace of disapproval.

"Hmph, she's a hard woman," he thought without saying anything. "What a pain."

Kiba walked over toward Ino as the mind-swapper smacked choji over the skull with her fist one last time.

"Ryoko and Naruto are fine?" he asked.

"The scaredy cat?" Ino asked.

"Don't you call her that," Kiba snarled.

"Why not it's what she is," the Yamanaka continued. "If you'd seen what I'd seen..."

"Shut up," he snapped. "You don't know anything. You said you saw them?"

"Yeah, they're going to be fine like Shikamaru said," Ino said, shrugging. "She's just lucky she has someone like Sasuke on her team."

That was said with a fair amount of rancor that was more like what Kiba expected of the girl. Ignoring it for now, he glanced back toward Hinata and gave her an encouraging thumbs up as he walked back toward the benches.

"All of you be quiet," the brown-haired boy in the middle said.

Instantly the two older Sand shinobi turned to grimace at him darkly.

"Who are you to tell us to be quiet!" Ino snapped harshly. "If you're going to be quiet, you might as well not exist."

Shikamaru's eyes popped open and he twisted to sitting up straight to stare at Ino.

Gaara frowned and looked up to meet Ino's eyes, narrowing his own. Normally, Ino would have felt the blood lust instantly and backed down. As it was, however, she'd already been steeped in first Ryoko's Kishu and faced the monstrosity of what had been done to Sakura, recalling their time as friends and given her an intense anger of her own that she needed to work out.

"Is that so?" Gaara asked smoothly. "If you're quiet, you might as well not exist? Are you saying you'd prefer not to exist than to be quiet?"

"What about it brat?" Ino snapped. "Do you think I'm just going to push over because someone tells me too? Am I just a piece of terrain then? I'm going to say what I feel and people can take it or not."

Gaara stood up and turned slowly to face her.

"Maybe I should show you how I know that I exist," he said vaguely.

"Hold on!" the blonde Suna shinobi said. "There's no fighting here. Remember what we're here for Gaara, we can't mess that up. So just...calm down, a favor to your sister."

"Listen to your sister, raccoon-face," Ino growled. "Because there's no way right now I'm letting any selfish brat push me around!"

"Excuse us," Shikamaru said as he and Choji grabbed Ino and started pulling her away...with some difficulty.

Gaara narrowed his eyes as she was pulled away and watched her progress.

"Blondie there is some idiot," Temari said, shaking her head.

Kankuro turned to look at her and took in his sister's blonde hair before shaking his head and grimacing.

"I have to deal with this for three or four more days," he wondered.

* * *

Out in the forest, Naruto was waking up slowly as he glanced around taking in the presence of the second team and Sasuke standing and exchanging glares with Hinata's cousin.

"Oi, what happened to that freak?" he asked.

It was some time later after the situation had been mostly explained to Naruto that both teams were still sitting around to give them time to recover.

Not that it was Neji and Tenten's choice.

"Let us just take the scroll and be done with it," Neji said imperiously. "You are holding right now as it is."

"But a challenge has been made," Lee protested. "It wouldn't be right to simply turn it down."

"Lee," Tenten said irritably. "Her body is shredded, as much as she acts like she's fine, she's not able to fulfill a challenge right now."

"Then perhaps we should give them the scroll so that they might leave the testing field earlier and have time to rest for the next step," Lee said.

"Oh no!" Ryoko said. "I couldn't possibly accept that! I wou..."

"You said 'couldn't'," Naruto commented, cutting her off.

"Ano?" Ryoko said, distracted before her eyes widened. "Oh! Could not! Could not! I could not possibly accept that!"

Tenten and Neji stared at her in something like disbelief.

"The point is moot," Neji said quietly. "We have enemies approaching."

"What?" Naruto asked. "Does everybody know we're here?"

"Ano...h..hai," Ryoko noted, pointing to the fire where she was brewing tea. "Su...sumimasen. Father says n..not to brew tea on the fire, but to po..pour the hot water onto the leaves after so that the smell does not travel too fair and attract trouble."

The other five people present blinked and looked down at the fire and the strong, herbal odor coming off of it.

"And why aren't you doing that?" Neji asked.

"Ano.." Ryoko said, blinking. "Th...this is easier than looking fo..for someone."

"Are you insane?" Sasuke asked harshly. "Nevermind...I don't want to know."

"It worked didn't it?" Naruto asked. "They're coming?"

"But we're not controlling who we fight this way," Neji said bitterly. "Or how many."

"Su...sumimasen," Ryoko said, not yet understanding why people were upset. "I...su...suppose I was too greedy?"

"Greedy?" Tenten asked, blinking as she readied for a fight.

"Nevermind, for this shall be a glorious chance to show our true worth!" Lee declared.

At least one person understood the subtleties of a Saotome with a "plan".

* * *

"What amateurs," one of several shinobi said as he and his team approached the clearing that they had finally tracked the wafting scent of brewing tea to its source. "They must have been brewing tea off and on for the last day or more."

"We're not the only ones that have come looking," one of his partners said.

"And don't forget what we saw on the way here," another noted. "Torino's team was slaughtered and left for dead where they fell not a mile away from here."

"If that was them," the first asked. "Don't you think they'd have left by now?"

* * *

"The Konoha brats," a Suna shinobi said from the tree cover at another angle. "Two full teams."

"Looks like one is helping recover from injuries," another noted. "You're not scared of a bunch of twelve and thirteen year old kids from a soft place like the Leaf?"

"Konoha is one of the great villages," a third noted warningly. "But I have to say what I've seen so far doesn't impress."

"We have two teams here," a fourth Suna noted, indicating their own members. "Numbers are even, experience and skill are not, the more experienced and skilled shinobi should prevail. Clearly that is not such brats as these."

"And the other two teams on hand?" someone asked. "The Amegakure and the Takigakure?"

"If they get in the way, they will fall," the fourth added in.

* * *

"Juni's team was slaughtered to a man," a Takigakure shinobi noted. "Not more than a day's walk away from here."

"And this our chance to avenge them," a second noted.

"How do we know that Konoha killed them?" the third asked.

"We don't, but now we have more reason than ever to succeed here," the first noted. "We just have to watch for the appropriate opportunity to strike and fade away."

* * *

Kashou sat on a perch in a tree and watched what was happening, idly he looked across toward where he'd sent the Musk warriors and then back toward the scene below. Let the animals chase their tails a few times, he didn't particularly want them to interfere in his observations just yet.

He'd been hired to confirm what the Musk claimed, nothing more.

It wasn't like he was foolish enough to try to grab power for himself.

If he did that, then he might actually have to pay for something out of his own funds.

* * *

Kabuto watched quietly, it was only the third day of the test, not yet time to interfere and guide Sasuke by the hand. However, the situation at hand was more than a little volatile.

The tension was building below him and at any moment it could erupt into an explosion of chaotic violence.

* * *

"Four teams," Neji said quietly. "Two Sand, one Valley and one Rain."

"H..hai," Ryoko said standing up and bowing several times.

Neji frowned as he noted that the girl's body was in much better condition after only the half day of arguing and light work they'd had since seeing her.

"Different villages," Sasuke said. "They'll hold off for now."

Neji nodded solemnly.

"What, why?" Naruto asked. "Why don't they come in?"

"Because the team that moves first will take the initial strike," Neji said. "And be weaker to face the next team. They'll wait to see who loses their patience first."

"If we make a move to leave, however," Sasuke said, "they'll move rather than risk being in the situation we're now in."

"Surrounded," Tenten said grimly. "Monkey in the middle."

"Ano..." Ryoko said as she finished putting everything away. "I..is that bad then?"

"If we know where they are," Naruto said. "Why not just take them and get it over with.

"Idiot, the first team that opens its back gets hit from two or three sides," Neji snapped, "Didn't we just explain that?"

"You just said there were four teams," Naruto said. "But there are six plus of us. That means each of us could take one team."

"Are we actually talking about each of us taking a group on our own?" Tenten asked. "Can we do that?"

"If they're as weak as they look," Neji said. "Are you fine to fight, Uchiha?"

"I'll feel as good as I ever have," Sasuke said firmly with a vicious smile.

He had to admit to being eager to test the feeling he had.

"Takigakure is in the trees behind Naruto," Neji said. "Amegakure is behind me. Sunagakure is between Tenten and Lee. They're the largest concentration so..."

"Rock-san and I shall at..attend to it," Ryoko said.

"Hai, that way we can be sure of each other's score," Lee declared.

"I'll support them," Tenten said to Neji, cutting off his commentary before it could begin.

"Then I'll take Takigakure," Neji said. "And Naruto perhaps should help your overly eager friend."

"Heh, don't worry about where I'll be," Naruto noted with a smirk.

"Then let's get on with this," Sasuke noted.

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" Naruto shouted, raising a cloud of smoke all about the Konoha shinobi which surprised all of the watching teams.

* * *

"A smoke bomb and jutsu bluff won't fool us!" the Takigakure team declared as she darted for the smoke. "Get them before they escape!"

They were interrupted soon after leaving their hiding spot by a figure in grey clothes stepping out of nowhere.

"You're in the range of divination," Neji said calmly.

"Scatter!" the apparent leader shouted, rolling backwards as Neji started to move.

His teammates were slow to respond, screaming as Neji's jyuuken tore into them, but he gritted his teeth and pulled out a pair of kunai for a retaliation.

"Uh uh!" Naruto called out loudly, dropping down on the leader from above and slamming him into the nearest tree.

As Neji looked up from the two he'd eliminated and over toward Naruto, he frowned slightly at the the thought that the blonde had thought he'd need assistance.

* * *

"Those fools are trying to run," an Amegakure shinobi said with sneer. "Let's give them the chase they obviously expect."

Darting forward, one of them called out.

"Run down the cowards like the weak of the herd," another snapped eagerly.

"Who's a coward," a cool calm voice asked.

Sasuke stepped forward and slammed a fist into the face of the center shinobi before twisting about with his foot and slamming into the next. Quietly he triggered his sharingan, not to watch his opponent's chakra, but to track the flow of something else.

Chi was hard to track, even with the sharingan, and from watching the blind woman, it seemed obvious that he wasn't getting the same picture she was, but he had enough practice now to at least partially note the way the chi was flowing already through and immediately close to him.

It wasn't truly chi channeling yet, merely following its path. It was something a good taijutsu-ka already did without realizing it. It was a further experimentation and observation, however.

The third blow struck into the last of the Amegakure solidly, and Sasuke watched the rippling of energy through the man's body as the physical impact and chi both insisted on traveling through the body in specific ways and the body resisted.

Sasuke smirked a bit in victory. This was something he couldn't watch in observing that woman. And now that he could recognize the faint trace of chi his sharingan allowed him to see, it was something he could remember for later and analyze.

Sasuke was looking up toward the first shinobi that he had struck, seeing the man standing up determinedly much to Sasuke's amusement.

Which was when a driving pain twisted outward from his neck throughout his whole body. It pulled a surprised cry out of him, driving him down toward the ground as he clutched at his neck.

"Heh, looks like you should have spent a little longer recovering," the Amegakure noted. "Or at least shouldn't have attacked alone."

"Who says he's alone?" a loud voice declared as an orange blur kicked the last shinobi's feet out from under him, followed by slamming into his face.

Sasuke grimaced, trying to catch his breath as Naruto, or one of his clones, finished off the last Amegakure ninja. He reached up to grab his neck and took a deep breath. Was it the chi or the sharingan that had triggered that, he wondered.

* * *

Ryoko and Lee appeared almost simultaneously in the midst of the six sand genin.

Tenten watched from a distance as Ryoko rose one leg in a curious hooking fashion to avoid a sweeping strike and then coming down again atop the sweeping leg inside the attacker's guard and slamming an elegant and graceful strike into the man's kidney and following up to pull the leg she'd hooked over far out of place.

At the same time Lee slashed out one roundhouse. His foot slammed into the jaw of the first of his targets even as he twisted in mid-air to avoid the slashing strike of a kunai from a second and slamming his knee into the second opponent's head.

Almost simultaneously, cries went up from each of the fighters.

"Ichi! Ni!"

From her position, Tenten tossed out her weapons, nailing the supporting numbers into tree bark while the two taijutsu specialists enjoyed free-reign in close fights.

One of the Sunagakure listened as the counting ranged higher and higher as he and his fellows were being literally mowed down. And it became apparent watching the reactions of the two, that he and the other Suna were being placed as the pieces of a game...a competition between the Konoha taijutsu specialist and the girl who wore no headband.

When the counts first reached double digits, he took a deep breath and turned to run, only to find himself facing a pair of identical orange-clad ninja that proceeded to knock him unconscious.

"Naruto!" "Uzumaki-san!"

"What, what?" Naruto asked, confused as he stood over the last ninja.

"You just incapacitated the tie-breaker," Tenten informed him with a tolerant shrug and a shake of the head.

"Ano..." Ryoko said nervously. "How do we decide who won now?"

"A draw," Lee said. "Most unfortunate. We shall have to attempt a new challenge at a later time."

Naruto gawked for a moment before rolling his eyes.

* * *

Ino woke up from her sleep and stretched, walking out of the waiting area to head on towards the lounge and cafeteria. She glanced over toward the others and the chunin that was standing watch over the arrived candidates.

That annoying brown-haired brat was still awake apparently. She felt a chill as the boy turned to stare at her and wondered if getting in his face earlier had been a wise move.

Whatever, it was too late to change that.

Someone had come into her village and...and...mutilated the mind of... someone she knew. This had stopped being a game two days ago. It was time to get serious about being Shinobi and protecting the village.

She'd always grown up hearing about her father's stories, but it had never hit her just how dangerous the world was until now.

The blonde walked up to the vending machine, currently rigged not to need money, and pushed a button. Reaching down to pick up the can that came out, she felt the irritating feeling of something scratching along the side of her skin.

She batted at it and found herself surrounded by motes of sand.

"What the..."

"Shall we talk about existing," a voice said behind her.

Ino froze and turned slowly around to look into the dull eyes of the creepy sand genin she'd shouted at earlier. She felt like running away, now alone in front of those eyes, but she'd just promised herself to grow up and stop treating this thing as a sort of hobby she'd inherited from her father.

"You're not going to scare me into shutting up," she snapped, thrusting out her chin.

"Because then you won't exist, right?" Gaara asked, sand swirling around him. "Suppose I fill your mouth with sand, perhaps then you won't exist or be noisy. And if I end your existence, then I'll definitely know I exist."

Ino flinched back against the machine and looked over the scratchless body of the genin, well aware that meant that he could probably drive her into a smear in the pavement given how skilled she was right now.

"Then you better do it now," Ino said. "Before I get strong enough to reach into your head and wipe your mind off the face of the map! Because I might be a loud-mouthed self-centered bitch, but from now on, my self is centered on making sure bastards like you have to find some other way to exist than to torture people."

Gaara snarled and reached out toward Ino, his eyes narrowing dangerously as sand reached up around the blonde leaf genin, pulling her against the vending machine behind her.

Ino gasped as she was pulled back harshly and the sand started scratch into her skin. But she held her mouth closed tightly in pride.

"Do it if you're going to do it!" Ino snapped, closing her eyes.

Gaara's eyes narrowed again and he pulled his hand back in consideration.

"Gaara!" a voice declared in a commanding tone. "Control yourself!"

Ino opened her eyes cautiously and looked to see a Sunagakure jonin standing in the doorway.

"I suppose you still exist then," Gaara said as he walked away and the sand pulled away from Ino.

She waited for the pair of Suna shinobi to leave before she let herself stumble to her knees and took a deep, steadying breath.

"Okay, Ino..." she said. "What did you just do?"


	18. Treatments

Kodachi walked into the hospital behind Mokya with a frown on her face. The medic had asked for her to come right away, more specifically her and her assistant. Her immediate fear was that Ryoko had been harmed somehow, but she was disabused by that as she came among the collection of large bulges in the chi flows that implied beings of strong chakra.

"Ahh, Kodachi-san," the Hokage said respectfully. "I am glad to see you here."

He walked to a door and opened it, altering the flow of chi significantly as it was now free to flow into new places. What came out of the door disturbed her as Mokya took her hand and led her to it.

"Can you feel anything?" the Hokage asked.

"There is a girl there, Mistress," Mokya clarified for Kodachi who shivered at the pain, rage and confusion cascading out of the form in the other room. "She's been hurt and..."

Kodachi squeezed Mokya's hand and nodded gesturing for the girl to move forward.

"I'll examine her," Mokya said. "Though I cannot do much."

Kodachi nodded and pulled out of the room to look for a table to sit down. She straightened herself and then pointed toward her chest and shrugged expressively.

"Why you?" the Hokage asked before glancing over toward Ibiki.

"Your blood tests indicate markers for schizophrenia," Ibiki said. "You have shown some eccentricity, but only mild symptoms compared to what we expected. There is no indication of any controlling medications. Kakashi's report indicates that your assistant has medical knowledge and we were wondering if that might not be a source."

Kodachi took a deep breath and mimed a pencil in hand.

Prepared, Anko brought over a notebook and pencil to the woman, who immediately began to write and pass notes over.

It was an old problem for her, her...imbalance. And to date the only solution she'd found was to regularly flush her yang and operate on yin for as long as she could, despite the fact it wasn't her natural balance.

Given that she didn't have the mastery to achieve unity or even fully adapt to yin, it came with a number sacrifices. The most obvious being that she had been denied the impressive feats of gymnastics she had been able to achieve while in the grip of her family's madness.

It was a sense of lost freedom that was always tempting her. Like alcohol for a drunk.

However, the main problem she faced was that she couldn't heal while steeped in yin until she gained better mastery over her ability to adapt herself. In the face of injury or illness, she was entirely dependent on Mokya for healing and treatment.

Or else be forced to awaken her corrupt yang for longer than she liked.

There were ways to cleanse the yang, letting the yang flow through her in a controlled pace and chipping away at the corruption piece by piece, like a river cleaning away a dead tree fragment by fragment over time. However, her cleansing had been interrupted for six years when she was in that unnatural place, and she'd backslid.

In addition, she'd lost both her teachers on the path to further mastery of her chi.

Akane-sensai...well, she supposed she could still find Akane-sensai, but not given her current responsibilities.

And Herb-kun was...taken from her. Or she was taken from him.

In either case, she was stuck where she was. Half of what she could be.

She passed on some of the technical knowledge in her writing, leaving off some of the emotion.

* * *

Mokya frowned in mercy as she felt the chi flows through the girl, and let her own chi flow into the girl to ease some more of the hurts. The chi came out raw, heavy and violent, full of aggression.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I am only an initiate, your knowledge of the body is probably greater than mine. What is wrong with her?"

"There is an infection in her genes," the doctors said, directing Mokya's attention to a sample of tissues and view screens showing the infections progress. "It is spreading through her cells like a virus or a cancer, and once it finishes, it reinfects the changed cells and changes her again. This cycle has continued in the smaller sample until you can't distinguish individual types of cells."

Mokya flinched as she followed the description realizing what it meant. It was like her mistress's treatment in reverse, instead of the river chipping away the rotting material to rejoin the flow, it was depositing the trash bit by bit into a single place.

"There is someone who might be able to produce a permanent treatment," one of the medical ninjas said idly.

"Wishes aren't going to help," the leader said. "By the time we found her, the girl's brain and body will have mutated beyond the point of no return. She might be dangerous, she might just be dead."

"So, you need a way to delay the infection," Mokya said. "Can you not kill enough of the infected cells to reduce the chance of reinfections?"

"The same problem," the head medic said. "The person who has skills precise enough to target just the infected material well enough to delay things is not here. We could apply poison therapy, but it would weaken her totally and might even speed up the infection."

"What about a master of destruction at its most precise?" Mokya asked, pointing to her mistress through the window. "Would that give you time to find this healer?"

"How precise?" the doctors asked.

* * *

The volunteer, one of the Anbu guards, was confused as Kodachi merely reached out to lay fingers on his chest and seemed merely to breathe deeply while moving her other hand carefully for a minute before stepping back and nodding.

"Is that all?" the Anbu asked with a laugh.

"Gather chakra," Mokya suggested.

With a shrug, the Anbu took a breath and started to bring his chakra in, only to suddenly be wracked by a series of harsh coughs. He waited until the coughs calmed down and tried again, only to be wracked again with the coughs.

He stared up at Kodachi after this second wrack with a look of shock.

"Your rank was Disciple you said," Ibiki asked. "And that it was roughly equivalent to a special jonin or low jonin?"

Kodachi nodded.

"A dangerous opponent indeed," the Hokage said, even she qualifies her lack of mastery in some regards.

Kodachi covered her destroyed eyes then and shrugged while shaking her head.

"It is called Chu Chi," Mokya said. "It is of limited use against those that focus on taijutsu or kempo, as our school calls it. Individuals such as that Gai would barely notice, even if they drew on chi."

"So only ninjutsu or genjutsu, are effected," Anko reasoned. "Many opponents would remain dangerous."

"I assume this stops chi use as well?" Sarutobi asked.

"Hai, but it would last for some days at least, possibly a week or more, and a chi master might be able to inflict it quietly," Mokya said.

"Assuming a lack of chi awareness in the target," the Hokage said.

"You're free with telling us this," Ibiki noted.

"The Redeemed School does not consider such things secret," Mokya said. "Our predecessors used this knowledge to harm many and we would not have that repeated."

"Forewarned is forearmed," Anko said.

"Gimu," Mokya explained. "Responsibility."

"This is the only thing that may be done?" the Hokage asked, assuming it was not.

Kodachi held her hand out to the Anbu and gestured slightly.

"She asks if you're prepared," Mokya said.

"This is reversible?" the Anbu asked nervously.

Kodachi nodded and mimed a mouth toward Mokya.

"Of course Mistress Kodachi of the Musk would not be so irresponsible," Mokya declared loudly. "For she is the Black Rose of the Iyoku line! OHHHH-HOHOHOHOOHOHOHOHO!"

The Anbu sweated nervously.

Then Kodachi reached out with her hand and gestured downward stiffly. Almost immediately, the Anbu dropped down to his knees. Kodachi lifted her hand, and the man stood, stiffly this time. When the Black Rose gestured for him to approach her, he held off the effect completely and stepped back.

Which was when Kodachi shifted through a sequence of motions and thrust toward the distant Anbu with a twist at the end.

The gasped in pain as his knee collapsed underneath him. Another gesture and he was clutching at his wrist. Finally she pointed toward the man's mask, and stopped.

"As long as the enemy remains infected with hostile chi," Mokya said as she moved forward to set right the damage her mistress had done to the volunteer. "A master of the destructive nature has free reign."

"What are the defenses?" Ibiki asked.

Kodachi mimed dragging feet.

"Yin masters are slow," Mokya explained. "Yang is needed to drive the body to the same speeds as chakra, and large amounts of it channeled constantly. Only a true master can use both yin techniques and yang techniques at once."

Kodachi cleared her throat.

"True masters, and a handful of families," she corrected herself.

"Will this be precise enough to control the girl's infection?" the Hokage asked the medics.

"It should be, given the precision displayed," the head medic said. "This could be the delay we need to find a more permanent solution."

"Does returning her to a normal balance of chi remove the illness?" Sarutobi asked.

"It has to be deliberately healed," Mokya said.

"Do it," the Hokage said, drawing a nod from Kodachi.

The blind woman nodded and turned toward Mokya, indicating the girl she lead the way to the door and Sakura.

* * *

Sakura snapped awake almost all at once and scanned about the room narrowly.

"Where am I?" she demanded as she tried to move, only to find herself restrained.

"This is the hospital," a woman said, and Sakura turned to see the proctor from the second phase of the chunin exam.

"Let me go or I'm going to tear you to pieces," Sakura hissed.

Anko moved in toward Sakura and leaned in.

"Get a hold of yourself, kid," she said narrowly. "Or the only thing your going to tear apart is yourself."

Sakura's snake eyes glared into Anko's and Anko decided that she must be talking to the secondary spirit that Inoichi had discussed.

"They're calling your parents in," Anko said. "Is this how you want them to see you?"

Sakura flinched and then tried the restraints again.

"Get the right part of you forward," Anko insisted.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked.

Anko leaned back and shook her head with a sigh before retrieving a kunai from somewhere and holding it against the back of her arm in front of the pink-haired girl.

Slowly she drew the blade over her arm, causing red blood to welt up.

Immediately, Sakura's eyes were fixated on that line of blood.

"I know all about this," Anko said quietly. "And I learned how to control it."

Sakura knew exactly what "it" was as Anko spoke.

"I don't need to control it," Sakura said, almost in a trance.

"Yes, you do," Anko said. "And I can teach you how. After all, I got mine the same place you got yours."

Sakura's eyes widened and she looked up toward Anko's face then, surprised.

"And one of these days," she said. "One of his experiments...one of us, is going to finish him for good."

Sakura smiled at that.

"Now," Anko said. "Let the right part of you out."

Sakura still had no idea what exactly Anko was talking about, but she could feel her shoulders shaking as the rage she'd been feeling up to then, against everything and everybody, faded into the background and all the despair rose up to the surface.

Anko watched tears starting to gather at the corners of the girl's eyes and reached forward to pat her comfortingly on the shoulder in a comradely manner. Sakura, even in her restraints, leaned forward into Anko's shoulder and let all the stress that had been sealed up in her flowed out.

"Umm, yeah..." Anko said, not expecting the reaction at all. "Right, it'll be...uh...okay."

Hesitantly the proctor wrapped one hand around Sakura and patted her back carefully, avoiding the still tender cuts there.

* * *

"As to the test," Ibiki said. "Word is that the majority of the teams are in. Tomorrow the preliminaries of the final round begin. Assuming we continue the test."

"Provoking Orochimaru before we know the extent of his plan is a poor move," the Hokage said. "We'll let the test continue."

"Understood," the interrogator noted. "We'll take measures to investigate the situation. He would not be acting in this manner with subordinates."

The Hokage nodded.

* * *

Naruto stretched loudly as he walked into the waiting room with the rest of his team, coming from a brief congratulations speech from Iruka.

"Naruto-kun!" a familiar voice called out as he came into the waiting area.

He looked over and saw Hinata there, standing up and looking very flush, as if she'd recently just stopped training. The Hyuuga girl slowly and nervously raised her hand to wave slightly.

"Oh, Hinata-chan!" Naruto called out with a smile and started to angle toward her. "How long have you been here?"

"We got here the first day, Naruto-kun," Hinata said. "We...we heard you were hurt. Are you okay now?"

"Oh, hai, hai," Naruto said. "There was this freak snake guy or lady or something that attacked all three of us..."

"Snake!" Ino snapped stepping past Hinata as if the Hyuuga weren't there and grabbing Naruto by the scruff of his orange jumper. "Did you say something about a 'snake freak' What did they look like?"

"Ino," Naruto asked, blinking. "Why are you shaking me?"

"It wouldn't matter," Sasuke said. "The face we saw was a decoy."

He winced a bit and reached for his neck and grimaced before forcing the pain back down.

"Sasuke-kun," Ino said, letting Naruto go and moving toward him. "Are you okay? Did he...do anything to you?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and clinched his hand over the curse mark as Ino asked him that question. Behind them, Ryoko was sitting down seiza.

"Why are you so interested?" he asked darkly.

Ino looked around carefully.

"Because..." she whispered. "Someone...hurt Sakura-chan. Someone who uses snakes."

Her own eyes narrowed darkly then and a Sasuke noticed the other two members of Ino's team watching her cautiously.

"And I'm going do anything I can to bring hi..."

"No," Sasuke said.

"No?" Ino asked, blinking.

"He took the best Ryoko, Naruto and I could throw at him," Sasuke said. "And laughed at us."

Then his voice rose to more conversational levels.

"A silly girl like you wouldn't understand what is to face death like that," Sasuke said as he brushed past Ino and straightened his clothing.

"Ano..." Ryoko said, looking up. "Uchiha-san...sh..should you not be more polite."

"Forget it, Scaredy-Cat," Ino snapped, shaking slightly. "I'm sure he's just not feeling his normal self."

"Did you say something about Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, stepping forward nervously.

"Oh, Naruto," Ino said, frowning before ignoring him and walking to join her team.

Gaara turned to watch the last part of the exchange between Sasuke and Ino with a bit of curiosity. This girl let that one tell her what to do?

And he claimed that she couldn't understand what it was to face death?

He knew that was wrong. The blonde girl had faced him pridefully despite her weakness. So he knew she could face death. It made him curious what power the Uchiha had over her that she would bend to that one, but not him.

"What did she mean about Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, turning around to face Hinata. "Do you think Sakura-chan is fine?"

He took in the Hyuuga girl's face and flinched at the expression he saw there. A lump of nonsensical guilt started to flitter through him and he wondered briefly what he had done wrong to make Hinata look more upset than usual.

"Uh...Hinata-chan," he asked. "Are you okay? Did I do something?"

"No," Hinata declared quickly, shaking her head vigorously and blushing. "I...I'm just worried about Sakura too. But I'm sure she'll be fine."

"Do you know what happened?" he asked.

"Not really, no," Hinata said quietly. "Ino and her team haven't explained."

"So how did you guys do?" Naruto asked after a moment of silence. "Didn't you say you got here first."

"Oh, hai," Hinata said.

"Wow, you guys must be awesome," Naruto said.

Hinata flushed briefly.

"Kiba and Shino are very skilled," Hinata agreed.

"Yeah, like you aren't," Naruto said with an amused snort. "You can't fool me into thinking your not strong."

"Oh no!" Hinata said, shaking her hands. "I'm...I'm really not that good, Naruto-kun."

"Hinata-chan," Naruto said, looking around. "You've passed the second stage of the chunin exam. That pretty much makes you awesome by default."

"Ano...maybe?" she said, shrugging.

Behind them, Kiba walked in from the lounge, Akamaru perched on his head, and a soda in his hand. He glanced around and immediately saw Naruto speaking to Hinata. Looking past that, he saw Ryoko sitting in her standard seiza off to the side, partially obscured by Naruto.

"There she is," he said with a relieved breath before strutting over there. "Ryoko-chan."

Ryoko flinched in surprise and looked up toward the dog-boy.

"Let me get you a soda," he said.

"Ano..." Ryoko said, blinking. "Ar..are you courting me?"

All eyes seemed to be latched onto Kiba for the moment as the dog boy looked up and around, facing flushing in embarrassment at Ryoko's statement.

"Uhh...just come here!" Kiba declared loudly, grabbing Ryoko's arm and pulling her along.

"I...I had no idea yo..you could be so manly," Ryoko said nervously as she took a coquettish pose behind Kiba.

"It's not what you think!" Kiba protested.

"It is not?" Ryoko asked, sounding vaguely disappointed.

Ino started to open her mouth when Shikamaru cut her off.

"The less said about that right now the better," he noted.

* * *

"Wh..what did you want to speak to me about?" Ryoko asked.

"What we were talking about before," Kiba said firmly.

"Wha...oh, I told you," she said, quietly. "You..d..do not understand."

"You're damn right I don't understand," he said. "Why would I understand anybody wanting to kill myself."

"I...I do not wish to," Ryoko said. "B...but if I dishonor my family..."

"Then you kill yourself?" Kiba asked.

"I clea...cleanse my family honor," Ryoko corrected. "But...but there is no need. I a..am careful to not be a..burden to my family honor."

"Who shoved that garbage down your throat?" he asked.

For the first time since he'd met her, Kiba saw Ryoko's face firming up in anger.

"It is not garbage!" she protested. "It is the way of my family! My mother is descended from ancient samurai blood that goes back to older times than the days of this shinobi world. I will not be a poison to my own family!"

She straightened her kimono and calmed herself down as she started to walk out of the lounge.

"Ryoko-chan," Kiba said. "Does Joseibi think that way?"

The martial artist stopped at the doorway for a moment and then walked out.

* * *

Neji came into the waiting room after his team had finished with their messenger and frowned as he looked across the waiting room to see Hinata speaking casually to Naruto Uzumaki.

He had to admit that Naruto was not the completely worthless ninja that Neji had first taken him to be. The shadow clones had been very much a surprise, but he was still inferior, only acting as a support for the rest of the team. Coming in at the last moment to steal a fraction of the glory earned by someone else.

He was, thus, only mostly worthless.

It was thus somewhat understandable why Hinata might be drawn to him like those other girls were drawn to Sasuke.

But it was still unacceptable that a Hyuuga, especially one of the main house, should so stain themselves with such a commoner, inferior ninja's presence. It compounded the other failures of Hinata to this point.

Now that they were in the final portions of this test, he expected the teams to be broken up. Then the failures like Naruto and Hinata would be culled from the rest of the pack.

At this point, Ryoko Saotome almost stomped into the room with a very clear expression of anger on her face before she sat down into seiza again and held that posture.

When Kiba came in a few moments later, looking frustrated and angry himself, she pointedly turned to look away from him.

"Ryoko-chan...?" Hinata asked. "Kiba...What is going on?"

"Kiba does not respect my the traditions of my family," Ryoko said, putting out her chin and not stuttering at all for once.

"It's a stupid tradition," Kiba protested.

"I must protect my family's reputation," Ryoko commented.

"And what's shoving something into you going to do for your family reputation?" Kiba snapped.

"Quiet," Gaara demanded. "Both of you."

"Yeah, that just went way past the too much information border," Ino said.

Ryoko blinked in honest confusion as her anger faded away.

"It's not what you think!" Kiba declared desperately before hanging his head.

"Ano...?" Ryoko said, looking around and hoping someone would explain matters to her.

* * *

Thyme, the badger-like Musk, and his fellow arrived with Kashou behind them near the end of the fifth day, looking distinctly disappointed.

"We never found this supposed Saotome in all the five days," they snapped bitterly at their third. "Your supposed skills were worthless. You weren't even around to help us acquire a scroll."

"Well, well," Kashou said. "If she is a Saotome after all, they maybe she can pull her presence out of the flows of chi. You've heard of the Redeemed School's tricks I'm sure."

"Feh," Thyme said. "Caper and I don't fear any of the supposedly mighty Senken. We leave that to you outsiders who are so impressed with such upstart traditions like the Saotome family."

"Then why are you so interested?" Kashou asked.

"If there is a Saotome," Caper said with a leer. "And a female at that, then she would be a great addition to the bloodline."

Thyme looked around and frowned.

"The chi flows in this building are complex," he said in dissatisfaction. "Yang flows in from the jungle outside, but there are many deep shadows and quiet in this place. It is steeped in Yin as well."

He said the last with a curl of the lip. Kashou smirked at that. Like many chi traditions, the Musk insisted on focusing on one side of the Tao: Yang, as was the most common such bias. The strong flows of Yin here would be useless for them.

"You think we'll have to fight in here?" Caper asked in consideration.

"We're weary and on the edge," Kashou said. "Of course they'll bring it to a test here."

"Then we'll just have to pace ourselves and familiarize us with the chi," Caper said with a shrug.

They nodded and walked out to join the other passing teams, eyeing the various women in consideration as they did so. For such a misogynist race, they still insisted on strong women as good breeding stock, and the children here would seem to be appropriate candidates.

The first they encountered was a young girl with long black hair and a pair of glasses that were held to her eyes with string rather than having frames that were set onto her ears.

They felt the way the chi coming off of her was stronger than that of many adult Joketsuzoku and stopped in a combination of awe and greed. She was too young to be attractive, but in a few years she'd be ready to add her clear strengths to the Musk.

Even if they did not find the pretender queen, then they had found a potential prize. Given Ryoko's own preference for yang and lack of skill with yin, they did not see that a fair amount of chi was of the dark chi. And unless they found Kashou's Mind Walk ability, that would likely remain the case.

"Saotome?" Thyme asked.

The girl blinked and turned to look back at them with a nervous smile.

"Hmm...ha..hai," Ryoko said nervously. "D...do I know you?"

"No," Caper said, licking his lips. "We are familiar with your family."

Ryoko regarded them carefully and bowed nervously.

"I..I hope th..that father did not st...borrow any..anything important," she said. "I...I am not sure where to find him anymore."

"That's fine," Thyme said, looking her over.

When Kiba stepped around in front of Ryoko and crossed his arms, he glared at the two Musk.

"Lay off her," he said. "Now."

"What's this," Caper asked. "A lost brother here among the weakling outsiders?"

"Try me and we'll see how weak I am," Kiba practically growled.

"Let's quiet down," Kashou noted walking between the two. "It looks like things are about to get started."

* * *

Kakashi watched his genin line up as a team and noted Sasuke occasionally reaching up for his neck in pain. He'd been briefed on Orochimaru's interference with the exam and narrowed his eyes, wishing Anko wasn't with the Haruno girl just at the moment.

He had a suspicion but he wanted someone who would know to confirm.

"I thought as much," the Hokage said watching Sasuke himself after finishing his speech.

"Hokage-sama?" Ibiki asked, looking toward the old man.

"Nothing to worry about for the moment," Sarutobi said before turning to look at Kakashi. "For now, he can participate, but if things get out of control..."

"I Understand," Kakashi said.

Apparently, the Hokage was thinking as far ahead of him as usual.

"Oh, and it is individual competition from here on out," Hayate said. "So if anyone wishes to quit, now is the time."

The lines of ninja and martial artists among remained solid until two hands rose into the air to the surprise of everyone.

Hayate blinked and took down the names.

"Kinnosuke Kashou, of Taniga," he noted. "And Kabuto Yakushi, of Konoha. Very well."

"What do you think you are doing?" Caper demanded angrily as Kashou started to walk away.

"How will I be searching the village if I'm stuck in these matches?" he asked with a smile.

"Weakling," Thyme snorted.

The man shrugged and walked away towards the back of the room, trading a look with the other man who'd quit with him. The look they exchanged was all so very friendly, but both saw through the shallow image, familiar to each.

"I need to watch that one," both thought as they left the room.

Behind them, Hayate indicated the electric scoreboard behind him.

"And the first match of the preliminaries will be decided now."

The electronic scoreboard wandered through all the participants and settled on two names.

"Sasuke Uchiha will fight Tenten," Hayate said.

Sasuke smirked to himself as the other fighters retreated to balconies around the fighting area.

"Who would have thought it would be this soon," he wondered.

"How much have you been feeling when you draw on chakra?" Kakashi asked behind him suddenly drawing a reflexively wince from Sasuke. "I see, you had a run in with a man named Orochimaru, didn't you?"

Sasuke remained silent.

"That mark, if you draw on chakra, will draw out more and more of your energy until it kills you," Kakashi warned.

"That's my own decision, isn't it?" Sasuke asked.

"Shouldn't you have reported the injury before the end of the second exam?" Kakashi asked. "You've been here quite sometime."

"It's nothing," Sasuke said.

"Well, just to warn you," Kakashi said. "If it goes to far, your match will be canceled."

"Canceled?" Sasuke thought to himself in shock.

"Because I'll step in to stop it," Kakashi said.

Sasuke grimaced and turned to glare at his sensei, only to find a wisp of mist as Kakashi Body Flickered to the stands.

* * *

Tenten looked to her teammates and her sensei and nodded firmly. Before smiling and taking in her opponent and moving to face off against him.

"I won't fail to live up to your expectations, Sensei, Neji," she said determinedly.

Hayate explained the rules as the two listened and watched each other for signs of their intentions. As soon as the call was made to begin, each jumped back toward a middle range.

Then Tenten flashed into the offensive unleashing with a trio of shuriken in a test of Sasuke's defenses.

She frowned as the Uchiha genius sidestepped two and snagged the third even as he drew out a kunai and tossed both out against Tenten. The brown-haired girl nimbly leaped into the air firing a much more serious salvo of weaponry against the Uchiha.

Sasuke dashed forward wincing as a few shuriken grazed over his skin and turned about to release an intense gout of fire that filled Tenten's vision. Caught in mid-air she could do little more than wrap her chakra around herself to shield against the intense heat and push through.

Oddly, as she landed, wincing slightly at the light burns that she'd picked up from the heat that pushed through her chakra, it seemed to her that Sasuke was clutching at his neck. Maybe one of her weapons had struck home a little more than she thought it could.

She launched out with another salvo of summoned weapons as he rolled away, already on the defensive.

* * *

Gai frowned as he watched the interplay. It was clear that the two fought in similar manners, a mix of medium and melee range fighting. They had similar levels of speed and accuracy, as well as skill. Tenten was likely not as strong, but she clearly understood that given how she was keeping herself at range rather than closing with one of her melee weapons.

However, it was also clear that Sasuke was operating with a handicap. It put the young man in good stead that he was testing his youthful might even with such an injury as he suspected the boy had from the exchange between Kakashi and the Hokage earlier, but it meant that he was almost sure to lose this fight.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi," Gai thought. "Tenten is far too skilled to be taken unawares by your student here."

Across the way, Kakashi was thinking similar thoughts.

"That fireball almost was too much," he thought. "Is this as far as it goes?"

* * *

Sasuke focused on defense and dodging for the moment as he reasoned out what to do. His one attempt to use chakra to any degree had just about wracked him into uselessness. If he hadn't been resting the last day or more he would have probably lost the fight right there.

He needed to find something else to do. And he couldn't slip into his sharingan, as that was even more chakra intensive.

The Uchiha heir cursed as the weapon specialist pressed her advantage again and forced him to roll out of the way across a field getting more and more covered in sharp implements.

His eyes narrowed in a moment of reprieve and he reached out to snap up one of the discarded weapons as he reached into his own pouch.

Tenten smirked as she easily dodged aside one of her own kunai returned back toward her, not even glancing back as it struck into the wall behind her.

"Is that all?" she called out triumphantly.

Sasuke frowned and darted to the side, changing the angle of his attack and lashing outward again and again, Tenten dodging each time as she returned attacks of her own.

They circled with each other for several minutes, peppering the wall in holes as kunai and shuriken were embedded all over the area.

* * *

"What's this?" the Otogakure jonin overseeing the Oto genin wondered, Orochimaru hiding behind a false face. "Is he going to try to do this without using my gift? Heh, heh, that'll only handicap him further."

* * *

"Not a single scratch on Tenten?" Kakashi wondered. "Is she that good at dodging or did I overestimate Sasuke's...oh, I see what's going on."

In front of him, Ryoko watched intensely as the two fighters spiraled around in a familiar pattern.

"She's done," Shikamaru declared idly.

"Huh?" Lee said. "But she has him on the ropes!"

"If Shikamaru says it's done," Choji said. "It's done."

* * *

Tenten watched her opponent visibly tiring and failed to note her growing sense of complacency. Either she'd gotten an early lucky hit in, or the Uchiha genius wasn't as much as he was made out to be.

Another attack by Sasuke using her own weapons and again she liberally danced out of the way, barely noting how Sasuke was already diving for the ground to avoid her own attack.

He idly grabbed at the ground for new weapons out of the pile there, as usual, and then pulled back, with a smirk.

Tenten frowned briefly, already into her next dodge. She had barely time to note the shimmer of a wire gathered up in Sasuke's hand as he pulled his hand back. Then she felt herself slam into a virtual net of wires cutting at her clothes and exposed skin.

Sasuke then darted forward with more speed than she had thought him capable of.

She felt the wires pulling tight as he circled around her, binding her arms to her body.

Sasuke grimaced as he wrapped the wire in his hands around the handle of a new kunai and tossed it out to embed in the wall with the other kunai. However, if just one anchor point, it wouldn't last long.

He started to charge forward and stumbled forward as the pain ripped through him out of his shoulder. He could feel the bruise of the curse mark spreading over his body and gritted his teeth, aware of the lost time with each moment given over to that mark.

Or...he could just give in and use its power, hope that he could finish Tenten before Kakashi interfered and the match was called.

"No!" he snapped bitterly. "I'm not taking the easy route to power."

Through sheer force of will, he forced the pain down and the curse mark to recede and took to his feet again, dashing forward to slam into Tenten's trapped form just shy of her escape.

Sasuke watched the weapon specialist tumble across the arena floor as he followed and slammed into her again before she could reach her feet. Driving on sheer will, Sasuke ignored the tracery of pain in his neck and wielded his higher strength against Tenten repeatedly now that he was able to.

Until, finally, Tenten didn't stand back up but only lay on the ground, tangled up in the wires.

"The winner is Sasuke Uchiha," Hayate said.

A moment later, Tenten started to stir again as Sasuke bent down with a kunai to cut her free of the tangled wires. He started to bend over to pick her up when he found himself facing Lee's grim expression.

"I'll take her from here," the taijutsu specialist said through narrowed eyes.

"If you say so," Sasuke said, discarding the kunai and walking away.

Only to collapse himself a few steps away, caught from a complete fall by Kakashi.

* * *

Gai looked on seriously as Tenten was looked over by the medical ninja and was relieved to note the unworried expressions on their faces.

"That one is dangerous," he said cautiously as he considered where his eternal rival was taking the boy that had just beaten down his student to the back of the tower.

Tenten was already awake and in treatment, and so he looked up to see who the next fight would be.


	19. Flows

"Damn it," Yoroi said as he glanced up toward the board. "I have some nobody."

Ryoko meanwhile was still trying to puzzle out why Sasuke's motions seemed familiar to here when Naruto reached out to tap her on the shoulder.

"Ano?" she responded, blinking at him.

"Your turn," he said, pointing up toward the electronic board that showed her name.

She looked up toward the board and a smile lit up over her face as she saw her name there.

"Wai!" she cried out before taking the stairs down at a quick pace but proper posture and step, carrying her bokken with her.

She came down to in front of Hayate with a bright and cheerful smile on her face and she turned toward the proctor and bowed deeply.

"Thank you, Gekko-sama!" she declared happily.

Hayate blinked in a bit of confusion at the enthusiastic attitude and glanced up toward Maito Gai suspiciously.

"Who's your jonin instructor?" he asked casually as Yoroi was making his way over.

"Jonin ins...oh, hai!" Ryoko said. "I am Ryoko Saotome, of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts and a member of Team 7 under Kakashi Hatake."

Hayate arched an eyebrow and glanced toward Kakashi in surprise.

"Okay, then," Hayate said. "I have no explanation."

"Ano?" Ryoko asked, blinking.

Yoroi reached the field then and took up position opposite of her.

"Let's get this over with," the man said in a bored tone as he looked down toward Ryoko.

"Hai," the black-haired girl said. "I sh..shall endeavor n..not to do too m..much damage."

Yoroi and Hayate blinked and the masked genin laughed viciously.

"You sound as if you think you will win, girl," he said with a snicker.

"I...I am a Saotome," Ryoko said, cocking her head as if that explained everything.

* * *

The Musk exchanged a look.

"Did she say..." Thyme started.

"Anything Goes?" Caper finished. "Not the Redeemed school?"

They shivered nervously.

"If Happosai's students are rising again," Thyme whispered. "Maybe we shouldn't be angering the Redeemed school? They're the only ones that can beat him."

"Not happening," Caper snapped angrily. "It's a fluke, she's nothing more than a lost student."

* * *

Kakashi sighed at Ryoko's display of enthusiasm knowing just exactly what it would...

"KAKASHI!" Gai declared. "Finally, you have imparted to your students a respect for the Power of Youth and Hard Work. Could it be that you have finally seen the wisdom of this very truth?"

Kakashi sighed and shook his head.

* * *

"Why is that doormat of a girl so cheerful about getting into a fight with someone who has to be twice her age?" Ino asked.

"She's a violent doormat," Kiba noted, retaining a little anger of his own from his last conversation with Ryoko.

"She's not a doormat," Hinata protested. "She's very skilled and strong and..."

Hinata sighed.

"Sh...she may be a bit...slow to speak for her own interests, however," Hinata admitted finally.

She turned back to the fight and triggered her Byakugan quietly.

Noting this, Neji did likewise, curious to see what his cousin was watching.

* * *

Hayate declared the fight started and immediately Yoroi entered a ready stance while Ryoko merely continued to stand in her noble-girl's posture with her bokken held like an umbrella.

"Are you going to get ready girl?"

"Su..sumimasen," Ryoko said bowing.

In that instant, the man stepped forward reaching out with a glowing hand, trying to take advantage of the girl's apparent lack of attention. He found himself missing as the girl bowed too far and tumbled head over heels, the back of one leg slamming into Yoroi's stomach and carrying him down to the ground just before Ryoko pulled herself up to standing on top of him.

Her other foot slammed down into the man's face shortly before she gasped and pulled her hands to her face.

"Su...sumimasen," she declared. "I..I didn't mean...Oh! I..."

She stepped off of him then, jabbing another heel into the man's chest before stepping off.

Not before the man reached up to grab her foot and a jab of pain swept up through her, encouraging her to hasten her chi to the area to ease the pain and injury.

She stepped back cautiously back into her Utsuro Kamae, the Blank Form stance her father had taught her and Kodachi-sama was helping her to perfect. The stance of no stance where all signs of readiness were hidden in an everyday posture.

The relief came sooner than she expected. Then she felt a change in the flow of chi as her opponent came at her again, and she stepped aside to dodge.

A fraction of a moment too early.

"I've got you this time," Yoroi shouted as his hand gripped onto Ryoko's shoulder and the pain ripped through out from where he touched.

"Itai!" Ryoko gasped, rolling away along a line of yang that seemed almost visible to her.

Drawing upon that to ease and heal the damage the man's touch had done to her, she watched as he came in, outlined in an almost visible disturbance like heat waves.

She blinked several times as she focused entirely on dodging for the next few exchanges and then letting that glowing hand touch her again.

* * *

Neji frowned as the Saotome girl's strategy and performance both turned nonsensical.

In the beginning, with his Byakugan active, he'd seen that her apparent civilian's posture was entirely different when one looked at her muscles and chakra. In essence, her every muscle was primed to act at a moment's notice. It was a skill he'd seen in some jonin, but the level to which this girl practiced it was insane.

He clearly saw through her apparent nervousness and apologetic attitude as the psychological tricks they were based on the enthusiasm he saw in her through his eyes.

Now, however, she had inexplicably started letting her opponent drain away her chakra. The strength left her, tearing minute injuries as it did, and empowered her opponent.

Despite this, Ryoko while maintaining a frantic, worried appearance, was actually speeding up, and her minute injuries were healing as they came.

She was actually getting stronger each time the man drained her chakra.

It made no sense.

"Ahh, I see," Kakashi said to the side with a slight laugh.

Neji looked toward his cousin to see if she was making any more sense out of this than he was, and then toward the copy-cat jonin. Apparently the man knew something he didn't.

Maybe something to do with the odd disturbance that fluctuated around Ryoko at the edge of his byakugan's frequency of vision.

"I don't get it," Naruto said. "What's going on?"

"Every time he touches Ryoko-chan," Hinata said. "She loses chakra. But it doesn't make sense, she's letting him do it, and it doesn't look like she's getting any weaker."

"Umm, Hinata-chan," Naruto said. "Doesn't Ryoko's chakra get in the way of her chi?"

Neji's eyes widened as soon as he heard the word and Gai turned around to stare at Naruto and then look out toward Ryoko.

"Chi?" Lee asked, confused.

"It's using the energy of changes and relationships," Gai explained. "The shift from one state to another. The motion and flow of energy through individuals and the world. Few have studied it and it is not well understood. Now I understand the presence of Kodachi-san and her assistant. They are this girl's tutors?"

"Hai, hai," Kakashi said, lifting up his headband to give his sharingan eye clearance.

* * *

The Musk stared down at Ryoko with a growing combination of unwise desire as she quietly encouraged the flows through her body to thicken and thicken, gathering up yin and yang into equally large rivers passing through her and confirming her bloodline as one of the Saotomes.

* * *

Yoroi sneered under his mask as the girl he was fighting pulled away each time. And each time he was only barely able to lay hold of her long enough to take a little chakra. He hadn't been able to land a solid blow yet and no matter how much chakra he built up from his thefts, she seemed to stay the same just barely slower.

Finally, she simply side-stepped his attack, not letting it touch her at all as she moved into a tip-toes looking into his face.

"Sumimasen," she said with no trace of a stutter than. "I have been impolite and holding back for an experiment."

"Nani?" Yoroi said, leaping back away from her where she stood in the same stance she'd started the fight with.

"I am Ryoko Saotome," Ryoko said. "Of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts and the Redeemed School of Martial Arts and of Konoha Team 7. I shall now fight you as a Saotome should."

Yoroi smirked arrogantly underneath his mask.

"Go ahead kid," Yoroi declared. "Do whatever you think you..."

And he was flying backwards into the wall.

As he struggled to his feet, the girl was standing where he had been, hand outstretched in the after stance of a graceful throw.

"Us..use what you have taken," she said, bringing her bokken back.

The chi around her was flowing in colors she had no words for. She could "see" as she breathed it in and felt it flow through her skin. She could see where the yin flowed and yang. She could see the intentions of her opponent as they formed.

Without her chakra in the way, her handicap was gone.

Yoroi came in at her, aiming to use his chakra draining touch, and she shifted her stance, moving her bokken in a way that was visibly clumsy to her now as it disrupted the chi flows around her.

Swinging it at the man that came in was an open invitation to be disarmed, and he took it, gripping the weapon harmlessly and tossing it across the field. His eyes followed it's motion briefly, and in that instant, Ryoko acted by shoving her palm into the man's side.

She twisted her arm to churn up the chi and so that, as her arm straightened, it flooded out in a torrent through her arm and into the target. The yin she thrust into him channeled right out into a flow of yang and ricocheted back through the man's body and into Ryoko's fist.

Yoroi stumbled out of position fully into a flow of yin that sought to come low to the ground and swirl through the shadows at the edge of the arena. Ryoko followed up, bringing a kick down and following that flow so that he bounced into the ground and followed the river of yin.

Ryoko pursued, action passing in fractions of seconds and she reached Yoroi as he stumbled into a shaft of warm light and air, moving from low to high as she entered the yang flow, she twisted her hands and punched outward, sending the man flying upward into the air following the direction that the energy wanted to go.

In an instant she was leaping upward herself to follow her enemy into the upper air, passing Yoroi up as she carried herself on a current of yang and then she came to the peak of her jump and twisted about to look at her opponent as she twisted her body about to let her yin flow out, as it desired, straight down toward the ground.

Feeling heavy for a brief moment, she slammed into Yoroi like a cannon shot and bore him down to the ground in an overenthusiastic rush.

At the last instant, she directed the chi out of her hand and through the enemy's body so that the vast majority of it carried straight into the rock, bypassing his vital organs and shattering the floor in a crater as she landed and also softening the landing for her and Yoroi.

Still, even the minimal energy she dispersed through Yoroi to knock him out wracked him painfully and he fell back unconscious.

Ryoko stood up and dusted herself off, breathing deeply and bowing to her unconscious opponent before looking over toward Hayate.

For once.

For once, she'd gotten to see what would be possible if she didn't have strong chakra.

"The winner is Ryoko Saotome," Hayate said, staring at Ryoko.

"WAI!" she declared loudly.

"Way to go Ryoko-Chan!" Naruto called out.

Aside from Ryoko's and Naruto's cheers, the arena was mostly silent.

* * *

Ino watched as Ryoko walked up past her, a dreamy sort of wide-eyed expression on her face as she looked around as if her eyes were working for the first time. For a moment, the girl locked gazes with her and smiled with a friendly wave, as if Ino had actively called out to her somehow.

"What the hell was that?" Ino asked, returning the wave nervously.

Shikamaru, too far to hear the exchange between Gai's students and Kakashi's, shook his head. He was left simply trying to figure out why draining the girl of chakra simply made her stronger.

He did watch as the girl walked up the steps, however, with Naruto cheering her on enthusiastically.

"That bastard," Kiba muttered as he noted one of the animalistic Tanigakure stepping forward into Ryoko's path.

Ino narrowed her own eyes, noting the leering expression on both of the Musk and forgetting about Ryoko's displayed prowess for a moment.

* * *

The Hokage watched as Ryoko cheerfully back up toward the balcony and then towards Ibiki.

"She's either inaccurate or merciful," the interrogator said. "Most likely a combination. It takes far more strength to pulverize the rock than it does to destroy the human body."

Sarutobi nodded and smiled as he bit into his pipe and puffed on it thoughtfully.

"She's chunin level at the least," Hokage agreed. "In terms of pure fighting skill. Perhaps low jonin."

Ibiki nodded.

"It is good that she is fighting for us," Ibiki noted. "If she remains simply a mercenary or even becomes a genin, there is no problem. She lacks the will of a leader, however."

The Hokage nodded.

* * *

Ryoko paused, feeling slightly troubled as she felt another wielder of chi move to cut her off from moving forward.

"Saotome," the man said with a smile. "A true example of Saotome blood in a twelve year old girl."

"H..hai," Ryoko said nervously, starting to move around the man.

"You would make strong sons indeed," Caper said, bringing a flush to Ryoko's face.

"Hai!" Ryoko said, blinking. "Th..that is my purpose, to find a st...strong man to continue the Saotome family name."

For once, however, in saying it, she didn't feel the same sort of rote repetition as usual. In fact, agreeing with this man sort of made her feel a slight illness. Nor did it feel like a normal challenge, leaving her normal thirst for battle...confused.

The clear beautiful chi flows, or at least her perceptions of them, were slowly and slightly twisted as she felt the chakra of her Kishu-Osore rise up for no reason she could discern.

The man stepped back from her as he felt the chi coming out of her turn just slightly heavy and twisted. Orange flickers replaced the blue of her eyes.

"Hey! Ryoko-chan!" Naruto called out, stepping around the Musk without noticing the man. "That was great! You were awesome."

"Ano..." Ryoko said, turning toward Naruto as the orange flames died down. "Uzumaki-san! N..no, that w..was not something that..."

"Ahh you were great," he said, grabbing her and pulling her forward, past the Musk.

* * *

Kiba watched as Naruto grabbed Ryoko and dragged her away from the pervert, his eyes off of the screen as it selected another set of names.

"Bastard," he muttered.

Shino glanced from Kiba toward his other teammate, Hinata, standing closer to Team 7 and her cousin's team. He'd come this way to keep Kiba company, for all that the dog boy seemed to forget his presence, but it did seem odd that Kiba had chosen purposely to come so far from where Ryoko was while focusing on her so much over the past few days.

Down below, the sand girl was tearing apart the Sound genin who'd lost an eye to the test some time earlier and he kept a watch on the skills of both, though especially the skills of the woman with the fan.

The one-eyed dark-haired girl, Kin, stood no chance with her jutsu against the woman, even as Temari was clearly holding back. And the fight ended with her slammed brutally against a wall, another injury on top of the others that she'd suffered.

Shino glanced upward toward the board to see who would come next as the Sunagakure kunoichi arrogantly returned to where her teammates stood.

"Next match," Hayate called out. "Kiba Inuzuka against Caper of Tanigakure!"

* * *

Hokage watched as Kiba jumped down with Akamaru and looked across toward the Inuzuka's opponent.

"So, another shinobi against another chi-adept," he said. "We'll see how this fares."

Ibiki nodded quietly as he took up position to watch the fight himself.

* * *

Kiba frowned as his opponent took in him and his dog.

"A dog?" he asked. "This will be a joke."

He laughed dangerously.

"Hmm," Kiba said. "I've been wanting this since I first saw you sniffing around where your not wanted."

"Are you staking your claim then, pup?" he asked laughing. "A tame puppy standing up to a full grown wolf?"

"Yeah, we'll see which of us is tame and lame by the time this is done," Kiba warned.

Hayate glanced between them and frowned as he explained the rules again and stepped back.

"Begin!"

Caper charged forward within the lighted center of the arena where the yang was strong and he could tap it extensively.

Akamaru and Kiba responded immediately dodging aside and circling around. The Inuzuka landed crouched on all fours and immediately started gathering his chakra into his jutsu as his opponent circled out around towards another vector.

"Beast Mimicry," he called out taking the opportunity given by his opponent's maneuvering. "All Fours Jutsu."

And then he charged forward, hands reaching for smoke bombs behind his back.

Akamaru zipped along on another line pacing Caper along the other side as Kiba dashed inward to cut the other canine warrior's path off, lashing out with smoke bomb as he came in close.

"Not enough!" Caper shouted as he redirected his motion and twisted around paying more attention to the flows of chi advertising intent now that his vision was obscured.

He shifted aside to dodge as a clawed hand slashed close by and kicked out to clip the legs of his opponent, sending one of them tumbling out of the smoke cloud.

Caper smiled as he caught sight of Kiba's form tumbled down and righting himself, only to be surprised as another line of hostile intent struck in from behind and a small pair of jaws clamped down on his arm and pulled into a tumbling roll.

Akamaru let go before the Musk could reach his feet and leaped over toward where Kiba was standing up as well.

"You're going down, bastard," Kiba snapped angrily.

"There's not a dog alive that can take a true wolf," Caper said arrogantly, entering stance again. "Especially not some pup like you. Or even two pups."

Ryoko watched as Kiba exchanged another set of blows with the man that had approached her twice now about being a Saotome. She bit her lip briefly as the Konoha ninja flew bodily out of the smoke cloud, but now the two warriors were moving into close combat and pressing each other viciously.

Akamaru slipped in whenever and where ever he could, working with Kiba efficiently as always. A clawed hand slashed out, drawing blood from the Musk who responded with a twisting attack motion that Ryoko felt probably ended in a ball of invisible yang seeking paths throughout Kiba's body.

* * *

Hinata winced at the side as she watched with her Byakugan still.

"That one is another chi-adept," she said in surprise.

Hinata turned about to look at her own jonin, Kurenai, standing by Shino further down the balcony and then towards Gai nearer to her.

* * *

"This one fights similarly to Saotome," Shino commented, with a difference.

Kurenai nodded, remembering what she could of Ryoko's spar with Naruto and her own fight just a moment previous.

This one did fight in similar lines and spirals, but there was a difference. There was no sense of waiting in this man's style, if he wasn't moving there was an awkwardness to him and whenever he opted to dodge, he moved high.

Whenever he was forced to stop, he almost visibly lost all his momentum as adverse Ryoko who fluctuated between motion and stillness as well as different directions.

* * *

Akamaru whined as he saw Kiba cough up a small breath of blood in the wake of that blow, but stepped in to knock their opponent off center and give Kiba a chance to recover.

The Inuzuka reached into his pouch and pulled out a pill biting down on it for himself even as he tossed one out toward Akamaru.

The Musk snarled and lashed out at the little dog, sending Akamaru skidding across the arena.

"Akamaru!" Kiba shouted bitterly, though instantly saw the dog's fur turning red as he stepped up to his feet.

For a moment, the Inuzuka was tempted to leap over Caper and rejoin Akamaru that way, but instead he darted aside to the edge of the arena and dashed across low to the ground.

"Running in the shadows won't help you!" Caper snapped chasing after him.

Kiba smirked and gave a short leap turning to face the Musk following him and releasing another smoke bomb to confuse his senses as Akamaru leaped up towards his back.

"We have to show this 'wolf' what it means to take on a dog of Konoha," Kiba snapped, Akamaru barking enthusiastically in response. "Man-beast clone!"

Caper pushed out of the smoke bomb to see two Kiba's charging in towards him and smirked as he moved to face them. Blood streamed as claws cut into him, but he responded with his own strikes, sending both Kiba and the transformed Akamaru scattering through the air.

Both recovered and landed on their feet, digging large furrows in the stone as they did so and watching as Caper spiraled away from him, taking the circular root to come back around to Kiba and Akamaru's position.

"What the hell?" Kiba wondered. "Why is he going all the way around like that."

* * *

Ryoko cocked her head in confusion and blinked.

"He only has understanding of yang?" Ryoko wondered.

"What's that mean?" Lee asked.

Neji took in what he'd heard from his sensei and what he'd seen of Ryoko fighting.

"He only focuses in one direction," Neji said.

"Ha..hai," Ryoko said. "He does no...not kn...know how to t..take the paths of yin to maintain momentum."

"So he chases the same yang to keep momentum," Gai said. "He can be predicted and herded."

"His style is incomplete," Kurenai noted to Shino.

Asuma nodded.

"He is all action and no waiting," Asuma agreed.

"Hmm, he's going to be in for it," Shikamaru said with a smirk.

* * *

"An art in its infancy," Hokage commented to the officials around him, glancing up toward Ryoko. "Ryoko and Kodachi have the complete art, even if Ryoko is incompletely trained and Kodachi is handicapped."

"This match shall be decided now," Ibiki said. "The Inuzuka is figuring it out."

* * *

"That's the flaw is it?" Kiba asked with a vicious grin. "You're just a dabbler!"

"Dabbler!" Caper demanded angrily twisting about and leaping into the air a prodigious distance and coming down as a golden aura rose up at the edge of his down-speeding body.

* * *

"Ano..." Ryoko said, shaking her head as the chi became visible. "Sl...sloppy."

* * *

Kiba easily avoided the edge of the focused chi as he and Akamaru came in from every direction at the landed Musk, waiting to see which direction he would take.

When the Musk tried to dart in one direction, Kiba and Akamaru, instead of letting him move, darted into his way and cutting him off above and on the ground.

The confusion and frustration on the man's face was evident as Kiba made simple spoiling attacks rather than full blows that he had been. Enough to make him stumble backwards and lose the flow of the yang he drew on for power.

"What's the matter? Feeling a little like a sheep in wolf's clothing?" Kiba demanded laughing as he lashed out with a sweeping low kick as Akamaru lashed out with his claws higher up. "Shouldn't a wolf know how to herd a prey?"

Caper growled and leaped backwards, slow and ponderous by comparison.

Kiba smiled as he shifted forward and Akamaru came up on his side. The moment they were waiting for was there, the enemy was slowed and off balance and they had the space and the advantage.

"Gatsuga!" he shouted.

* * *

Ryoko watched as Akamaru and Kiba launched into the finished Fang over Fang technique and burst into a whirling pair of spiraling fury. One of them, she wasn't sure which, slammed into Caper from above, another came right in from behind and struck him again.

The strikes came again and again as Naruto watched from the side.

"Yeah! Go Kiba! Go!" Naruto shouted. "Awesome!"

Ryoko, however, frowned and her hands clinched the bar in front of her.

Finally, the two Kibas came to a stop on the ground, flanking the battered Musk as he fell out of the air and thudded to the shattered stone floor.

Everyone watched carefully for a moment as Caper started to stir and raise, but then stopped, falling back to the ground.

"Winner, Kiba Inuzuka," Hayate declared.

Kiba smirked and then dropped to his knees catching his breath as Akamaru also turned back to his dog shape.

After the medic ninjas made sure that there was nothing that needed to be attended to right away, Kiba started making his way back up the balcony towards where Shino and Kurenai were, stopping for a moment as he passed Team Gai, Hinata, Ryoko and Naruto.

"Way to go, Kiba!" Naruto shouted.

"Congratulations," Hinata said to her teammate.

"Yeah, I showed him better than to step wrong around here!" Kiba declared boisterously, preening as he did and looking toward Ryoko.

"H...hai," Ryoko said. "I...it was a very good match."

She stopped and looked back toward the board for a moment.

"What's wrong now?" Kiba asked wearily.

"Ano..." Ryoko said. "I...it's nothing."

"Just tell me, damn it," Kiba said. "If someone's pissed you off, you don't have to be so polite about it. You weren't before."

"Di..did you hold back?" she asked.

Kiba frowned and wondered where in that fight Ryoko got the idea that he was ever holding back.

"Against me?" Ryoko clarified.

"What?" Kiba exclaimed. "No, no!"

"Then why did...didn't you use the gatsuga against me?" Ryoko asked.

"I barely finished it after getting to this place while waiting for you guys!" Kiba protested.

"Ano..." Ryoko said quietly. "Kiba-san. Next time, d...do not hold back."

"I didn't..." Kiba sighed and shook his head. "Nevermind, fine, next time we fight I'll make sure to use every technique I have against you."

"Wai!" Ryoko declared happily.

Kiba paled and looked toward Hinata and Naruto.

"I just..." he said.

They nodded.

"Again..."

They nodded.

"Ano?" Ryoko asked. "Kiba-san. I...is there something wrong?"

"No, no," Kiba said dully. "I'm just very tired."

"Oh...h..hai," Ryoko said, flushing and then bowing. "Sumimasen."

He took a deep breath and slumped over toward Shino and Kurenai.

"That was a very good match, Kiba," Kurenai said. "You did very well analy...is something wrong?"

"I...I think I just accepted a rematch challenge from Ryoko," he said with a hopeless expression.

* * *

Temari shook her head at the last fight as the two dog-like warriors tore into each other. She'd seen the older one looking at the dark-haired girl with glasses like some sort of cradle-robbing pervert and was more than approving of his being batted around like a chew toy.

"What is with this Tanigakure freak or that girl in the glasses?" she wondered darkly. "Their skills and jutsu don't follow the ordinary rules."

"It doesn't matter," Kankuro said. "We're not going to have to worry about a handful of freaks with unknown blood gifts. Especially one it doesn't look like one group will be here in a month for the finals. They're down to just one more."

Gaara stayed silent as he watched the fights.

Sasuke interested him, of course, given that he was supposed to be facing the Uchiha in the finals according to the plan. There was quite a bit about the other boy that interested him. By comparison, the next two fights had only been irritating.

The second had been such a clear mismatch of abilities that he felt no particular way about either fighter, though the loud cheering girl had annoyed him with her voice. The third hadn't been anything more than a lot motion and blustering.

He heard the sound of the electronic board running through names and looked up towards it to see the next match.

"Hmm, Hyuuga," Kankuro said dismissively. "One of Konoha's great clans. Let's see how they do."

He leaped over the edge and moved down toward arena floor, walking past the debris to where the sickly proctor waited for him and his opponent.

Kankuro watched as his enemy came slowly down the stairs and across the ground to stand across from him.

"Kankuro of the Sand," Hayate said. "Versus Neji Hyuuga."

"This is an unfortunate match up for you," the cold, grey-clothed boy said as Kankuro took him in.

"Tsh," the dark-clothed sand genin responded arrogantly. "I wouldn't count me out yet."

He swung out his burden and planted on the ground next to him with a smirk.

"Ready, begin," Hayate called out.

Neji calmly stepped back and pulled his hands up in a sign.

"Byakugan," he said in almost a whisper.

Kankuro flinched as the veins in the side of his opponent's head, near the eyes, started to bulge.

"What the heck is with this guy's eyes," he wondered before shaking it off.

"As I said," Neji noted. "You've been poorly matched."

"Come on then, if you're so certain of yourself," Kankuro said with a snicker and a wave with his free hand.

Neji darted forward and the sand genin prepared to block the predictable blow coming in.

Right up until Neji turned at the last moment and slammed a chakra filled knife hand into the bundle that Kankuro was holding at his side.

Instantly, the sand genin toppled over with a crackling sound as his skin flaked off to reveal the puppet underneath. As for the bundle, it toppled over with a grunt as Neji tore off the wrappings to reveal the real Kankuro hiding there, his face a rictus of pain after the jyuuken strike had ravaged his system.

"I told you," Neji said coolly. "Your match up was unfortunate, proctor."

He nodded to the chunin proctor, who grimaced irritably.

"Winner, Neji Hyuuga," Hayate said, triggering Neji to start walking back for the stairwell.

Temari watched down in shock at the result of the fight and concern for her brother, currently being looked over by the Konoha medics.

"What the hell was that?" she asked. "How did he know that Kankuro was in the bundle?"

"Pathetic," Gaara muttered bitterly.

* * *

Kashou stepped out of the gates and walked away from the training ground, the chunin escorts not far behind him. Once he reached the town, they mostly dropped back, losing interest in him. The other forfeitor, Kabuto, had left on his own path almost at the same time.

He stopped and smiled as he felt a presence.

"Kinnosuke Kashou," a voice said quietly. "Master of the art of passing the price on to someone else. Sorcerer. Thief. Murderer."

"Oh, someone here knows me," he said with a smile, turning about to see a young girl, almost a woman, standing behind him. "You've grown."

"Hai," Mokya said stepping forward. "You are working for the traitor Musk now?"

"Utsuro Kamae," he said, noting the subtleties of her stance. "You're training with either Anything Goes or the Redeemed School."

"Redeemed," Mokya said firmly, flexing her hands. "Iyoku Initiate."

"Iyoku, and what is your ambition, Mokya Ono?" he asked.

"I wish to extract payment for a past debt," Mokya noted.

"And do you have the Strength and Freedom to make your Will real?" he asked. "Without sacrificing Compassion or Responsibility?"

"Shall we see?" Mokya asked slipping forward. "Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!"

Mokya was interrupted by a dark haired form that darted between her and her target. Her amaguriken was diverted aside mostly though she felt many strike the woman that had put herself in the middle.

"Oh, Kodachi of the Black Rose," Kashou said without shifting position.

"Mistress?" Mokya called out as Kodachi reached to clutch her side where some of the technique had struck her. "Why did you..."

Kodachi held her hand back toward Mokya and turned toward Kashou and exhaled a cloud of glittering sparks that wiped over the form of the man they faced, who merely smiled before dissolving in the sparks.

"Blind but not sightless," the image said in a crackling voice just as it vanished.

"Booby-trapped chi phantom," Mokya said, ashamed. "I...I should have known a sorcerer like him wouldn't put himself out to risk the way do, Mistress."

Kodachi nodded at her, frowning and gestured toward her assistant's form as she breathed in the cloud of living chi back to her system.

"I'm fine mistress, but...I should attend to you," she said quietly. "I did not mean..."

Kodachi waved off the concern as Mokya came to her side to examine the level of injury she'd inflicted on her own mistress.


	20. Surprises

Shikamaru tsked as his name came up and shook his head.

"My turn now?" he said. "What a pain."

Asuma shook his head in amusement as Shikamaru sauntered down towards the arena where his opponent was waiting.

Zaku watched the lazy ninja meandering his way down to the match with a sense of irritation. After all their preparation, none of them had yet fought Sasuke. At this point the only way to get a chance at the Uchiha was to get into the finals.

Which looked like it would be a bit easy if his brat of an opponent were any indication. He looked on the half-lidded eyes and shuffling walk of his opponent in disdain as Shikamaru finally reached their position.

"I'm glad you didn't take your time," Hayate noted before giving an explanation of the rules.

Shikamaru shrugged and looked over at Zaku. He knew nothing about the man at all other than that he was from Otogakure. However, it was clear from his posture that he was an aggressive type. Prone to leaping in head first.

The Nara shadow user could simply grab him with the shadow possession off the bat, probably, but then he wouldn't have anything to do to finish guy off. Nope, he had to get the guy somewhere else in the arena.

There weren't many features in the arena to make use of. The crater that Saotome girl had made, the furrows that Kiba had dug. Neither of those were of much use in finishing a fight, plus using them to enhance his shadow was unnecessarily revealing for further fights.

And he reasoned that there would be further fights.

He could just forfeit, but that would be all sorts of other pain, especially with Ino in the back shouting about a "sixteen-hit combo". That was actually comfortingly familiar from the girl, who'd spent the last three days of waiting almost obsessively planning, practicing and ask him for advice on tactics.

She's started taking this far too seriously.

Of course, Asuma-sensei would be more than a little upset as well. And so he'd have two pains in the neck to live with if he tried to forfeit.

So, it was back to winning this fight.

"Tsk," he said shaking his head. "How irritating."

"That's my line," Zaku said. "All the important people have gone already and I'm stuck with a nobody like you."

Shikamaru arched an eyebrow at the man's phrasing. The last person to declare someone a "nobody" in this arena had been batted around like soccer ball by a slip of a twelve year old girl. Then that Musk had called Kiba a "pup" and...gotten batted around like a soccer ball.

He hoped that didn't mean people expected him to do something so strenuous as batting this guy around.

As soon as Hayate began the fight, predictably Zaku reacted right away.

"I'm going to put an end to this farce right now!" he declared, reaching out with his hands.

Shikamaru noted the holes in the other genin's palms and was moving even before the burst of wind clipped him and shoved him back towards the walls. Had it hit him full on, he would have been caught in the current and battered by both wind and stone. As it was, however, he was pushed out the edge and managed to right himself before striking the wall and then repel off of its surface back to the ground.

"Air blast," he thought. "That is troublesome."

His mind thought back to Temari's performance against Kin. The fan wielder had used the wind to disperse the girl's senbon across the arena uselessly. Even the one she'd managed to stick into a wall as an anchor for her bells hadn't proved very useful.

A blast of the wind from the fan had ruined the vertigo-inducing sound just shy of Temari flattening her.

Projectile weapons weren't going to be of much use, they'd just be blown away. It wasn't something he could easily turn against his opponent either, given that it was probably chakra driven and he could only control the muscles.

In any case, the guy was pointing at him again and Shikamaru had to move quickly, too quickly for his liking, to avoid being struck.

"Damn it," he muttered bitterly as he covered his head from the scattering of rock raised up by the air blast.

His eyes scanned around the various pieces of debris still in the arena.

"Is all you're going to do run?" Zaku asked arrogantly.

"Okay, there's a good piece," Shikamaru thought as he moved at the edge of his opponent's perceived range. "Why couldn't I have taken on somebody like Shino? I wouldn't have to be moving around so much then. Tsh, that would almost be like playing chess."

"You think that you're going to get away?" Zaku demanded, darting aside to come into an angle where Shikamaru was one point on the way to the closest wall.

Once again the blast of chakra laced air rushed outward and bore down on the lazy ninja, seeming to lift him up and slam him painfully into the wall.

Zaku smiled for all of a second before his body froze in position and the body of his opponent vanished in a buff of smoke to reveal a large hunk of stone cracked and shattering into several smaller pieces.

"Shadow Possession jutsu is a success," Shikamaru said almost immediately behind him.

Zaku tried to turn around and face his opponent, but his body wouldn't obey his will. And then his arm reached for his weapons pouch and drew out a kunai.

"Wh...what the hell?" he demanded as his arms rose up shakily.

And then Shikamaru's own arm slammed down with the kunai handle to the back of Zaku's skull and the Sound ninja crumpled into unconsciousness.

"Maybe I should practice my taijutsu a little bit more?" he wondered as he yawned. "Then maybe I can get that hit in without the possession jutsu? Tsh, that's almost more of a pain than it's worth."

"Winner," Hayate said as Shikamaru scratched the back of his head, clearly bored. "Shikamaru Nara."

* * *

Temari frowned as she took in the last fight, noting how the Konoha shinobi's shadow seemed to transmute at the end there, right before the sound ninja was locked into mirroring the Nara's actions.

* * *

"All right, Shikamaru!" Ino declared. "That was a little boring, but at least you won!"

Asuma leaned over and spoke to the blonde mind-ninja then, tapping his cigarette out.

"Now's probably not the time to be calling a match boring," he noted laughingly as he pointed toward a board.

Ino looked and saw her name matched up against Thyme, the other of those perverted outsiders. She grimaced and nodded.

Asuma stood back up and wondered at the kunoichi's seriousness as she moved down toward the arena floor. He'd have half expected her to be scared stiff as she was chosen to face another of these chi-users pretending to be shinobi.

Instead, she'd firmed up her jaw and headed downstairs to face her match thoughtfully.

"Isn't that a bit out of character for her?" Asuma wondered out loud.

"Ino's been like that since we captured Sakura," Choji noted.

"Captured," Shino noted, looking toward the other two members of Team Ten.

He'd heard bits and pieces of what had happened with the stubborn pink-haired girl since the other team had arrived. None of it added up to anything good, but this was the first time he'd heard of a capture.

He narrowed his eyes under his classes and looked toward the two jonin exchanging an uncomfortable look.

"Sakura and Ino have been close a long time," Kiba noted casually. "Friends and then rivals, even I know that. If something bad happened to my sister, I know I'd be angry, even if she is annoying."

* * *

Thyme watched the slight blonde coming down to face him and didn't expect too much trouble. The old Musk theories were odd for misogynists. They didn't deny that women could be strong, in fact it was the basis of much of their culture to seek out and capture strong women to add their strength to the Dynasty. Or else curse powerful men or monsters and lock them with the ladle to do the same.

It seemed kind of counter that women should be prized for intelligence and strength and power, but denied any rights so that their gifts were tied down and handicapped. Not even to be used as weapons, they were just to be used as bearers of sons.

Herb, and three emperors before her, had tried to change that, though they remained highly bigoted themselves until Herb was cursed and returned with that strange woman as a queen in the wake of the Anything Goes war. The peasantry had been getting out of hand in response, so the traditionalists had finally stepped in to fix matters.

Still, he didn't think this loud girl was worth anything.

The sickly man proctoring the fights, and Thyme wondered how he expected to enforce his decisions, called it to begin and the fight was on.

* * *

Gaara watched Ino take the field and stand ready, watching the cast of her face. It was very close to what she'd shown when he confronted her before.

He wondered what sort of strength she'd show here to backup her determination. To define herself by stopping "bastards like him."

He glanced over toward the other opponent and found nothing there interest there. The badger-like man's face was broad and his eyes were stupidly fixed.

There was no loneliness there.

This was someone who had never known true suffering, he was just a thug with an elevated self-worth. There was no fire in his eye to match what the blonde girl had shown him earlier either.

"There's a lot of these brats in this..." Temari started to say.

"Quiet," Gaara snapped coolly. He thought for a moment and added, "Go see if that fool has permanently injured himself."

"Right," Temari said, heading for where the medics had taken Kankuro.

She spared her youngest brother a cautious glance as she left.

* * *

Ino remembered the discussion of the previous match with one of these "Tanigakure" people and went on the offensive immediately, darting around the man's first punch out at her, and only barely avoiding being creamed.

She slashed out with a kunai at him, only to feel it scratch against her opponent's skin with a sound like drawing it across stone and barely drawing any blood at all.

"Hmph," the man said. "You think you're going to hurt me with that little toy?"

Ino dodged again and then slammed a kick up into her opponent, the short badger-like man intercepted her blow with a painful block and then his other hand flashed out to smack into Ino's head with a dismissive slap that none the less rocked her painfully back on her feet.

"You don't have the strength to stall me up and separate me from the chi, girl," he said pushing forward and bringing a knee up into her stomach.

The kunai in Ino's hand was tossed aside as she doubled over only to be lifted up by her opponent, the man not much taller than himself, by the throat.

"I have the strength and toughness of the fiercest badgers of the Jusenkyo Valley," he boasted. "And harnessed by a Chi Gung that is second only to the Breaking Point technique of..."

And then the girl in his hand puffed into smoke to reveal the same kunai that she had dropped, the handle wrapped up in some sort of paper that started sizzling in his hand a moment before exploding in his face.

* * *

Shikamaru leaned forward, eyes wide in surprise. Choji and Asuma beside him both moving to the edge of the field as well.

"What the hell?" Shikamaru said.

"Is... is that Ino?" Choji asked.

"She's seriously fired up," Asuma thought to himself.

* * *

Ino coughed out, clearing her throat as she saw her opponent stumble backwards off his feet, blood streaming from several small cuts that the shrapnel and explosion had sliced into him, but he was clearly not down.

The man reached his feet quickly and came after her. He was much slower than his partner, but Ino herself was no speed freak like either Kiba or even Sasuke. She was faster than he was, in hand and foot speed, but only marginally. And she was sure he could outrun her.

He didn't seem to be all that bright either, but if she were honest, she hadn't made the best use of her brains in the past. Though she did have a great example of brains on her team if she just stopped to think about it.

Using the Mind Switch was her only real hope of beating him, she thought bitterly. Perhaps it was just her fixating on her one skill, but whatever the case, it was what she had determined. Even with the explosive tags she still had, "borrowed" from Shikamaru over the last couple of days, she didn't think she could wear him down enough.

All she had were the basics: basic clones, transformations and substitutions. With her Mind Switch and Chakra Rope jutsu in addition to that.

In the meantime, she had to stay out of the man's grasp, backing away desperately. His taijutsu was a lot better than hers, and added to her pathetic strength and his monstrous stamina.

She had no chance in close combat.

"So what would Shikamaru do in this case?" she wondered. "What would Asuma-sensei do?"

As the man put on a burst of speed and threatened to catch up to her, she performed the substitution jutsu again, letting a large chunk of debris be pulverized in her place.

Thyme turned about to face her and virtually growled in frustration.

"Is running away all you're going to do?" he wondered irritably. "Hardly worth the trouble."

"Quiet!" Ino shouted, laughing sharply. "There's no way I'm letting myself be upstaged by that smelly dog-boy!"

* * *

"Smelly...?" Kiba said, blinking.

He bent over to try to get a whiff of his own sent and frowned before turning toward Shino.

"Am I sm..."

"Hai," the bug user noted simply.

Kiba winced and grumbled before turning back toward the fight as Ino threw out three shurikan at the charging Musk, her back to the wall.

* * *

Ino watched her shuriken diverted easily to the wind and winced as the badger man's punch moved to slam into her face again. For the third time, her body vanished in puff of smoke and Thyme was punching a shuriken into the wall.

His own strength pushed the sharp blades of the shuriken deep into his hand between his middle and ring fingers, almost driving a split down the middle of his hand.

"OWWWW!" he growled. "You'll pay for that!"

He leaped upward into the air again and slammed down behind the image of Ino where she appeared elsewhere in the arena. The blonde shrunk in nervously as the man swung a kick through her.

And passed straight through the clone.

"Phantom?" he declared, before feeling a trace of intent from behind.

* * *

Ryoko watched the man fighting and grimaced. He was still only using yang, but he paced himself better. He pushed most of his yang into his skin and body. The yang desiring to push every outward repelling attacks and seeming to harden his skin and enhance his muscles.

His speed was good but nothing terrible, and he could stay in the flows of yang much longer than the other. He lost momentum when he changed directions, but his pace was so mild that he'd hardly notice the loss.

Ryoko couldn't figure out whether he was clever for someone who only understood half the Tao, or if he was just so stupid undeveloped that he didn't notice the loss when he changed directions.

Either way, she didn't like Ino's chances, and that made her more than a little worried.

* * *

"Whoa!" Naruto called out beside her. "Go, Ino! Go! You've got him on the ropes!"

"Ano..." Ryoko said as she and Hinata looked toward Naruto and exchanged glances.

"Are you watching the same battle?" Neji wondered idly.

"She can do it!" Naruto declared, before turning toward the others on the balcony with him. "You can do it, Ino!"

"Oh!" Gai shouted. "Do you see that, Lee?"

"Hai, sensei!" Lee declared. "She certainly burns with the fires of youth!"

"Even Asuma's jonin have taken up the true path," Gai declared loudly.

* * *

"Those idiots are going to ruin my concentration," Ino muttered from her position amongst the debris.

Thyme turned about to see a rock vanish into a puff of smoke and three separate blonde girls run in three separate directions as they each launched a tag-wrapped explosive at him.

Thyme grimaced dangerously and swung his arm through an arc to intercept all three kunai and divert them. The solid arch of chi trailing his hand turned visible as he tried to push yang through yin.

Two of the kunai were unaffected and his hand passed through them without affecting their path. The third, the middle arched upward and exploded above him washing fire over his body but not doing more than singing his tunic.

"I have you," he said, darting forward and ignoring the two images that had tossed the fake kunai.

He landed just behind her as she ran, trying to reposition. He sneered and reached to grab hold of her long pony tail and pulled back, satisfied at the solid feel of what he was holding.

The Musk expected her to replace herself with something again, instead, she reached back with another kunai and sliced through the base of ponytail and darted aside again.

Tossing the bundle of hair in his hand away, Thyme whipped about and lifted a chunk of debris to toss at her.

Ino winced as the stone struck her in the side and sent her rolling and nursing a bruised side.

She kicked herself back up to her hands and knees at the far extent of where the Musk had tossed her hair and put her hands down as if she were drained and out of endurance.

"Not a bad show," Thyme said as he stepped forward, and, on the third step felt his foot refuse to come up.

"This is the end," Ino said firmly, straightening her posture and stepping one of her feet on the trail of chakra running through her hair to wrap about Thyme's ankle.

"What do you think this will solve?" Thyme demanded as he shifted about his bound foot and watched Ino.

* * *

"No, no," Shikamaru shouted, watching the fight below. "You only caught one foot, Ino! Don't try it!"

* * *

"What can he do with one foot?" Ino wondered as she drew up her hands into the sign. "Mind Body Sw..."

Ino called out with a victorious tone of voice.

Thyme lifted up the one unbound foot and slammed it down into the ground shouting himself.

"Eight Horse Stomp!" he shouted, impacting the ground just ahead of Ino finishing her jutsu.

A tremor rippled out through the arena outward just barely more than thirty meters, causing some of the spectators to firm up their grip on the bars or even tumble to their feet.

...itch," Ino finished.

She was unable to stop the activation of the jutsu and watching hopelessly as her aim was thrown off and her spirit was released outward into the open air. Her own body fell back limp and unresponsive.

Thyme walked up to her, confused as he tapped her body.

"Eh," he wondered. "Some sort of seizure?"

Then he punched down into her chest, receiving no response. He moved on to pressing his weight down on her right hand until he heard cracks.

"Hey," Hayate said. "That's enough! This fight is..."

Thyme pulled his leg back and kicked it forward, propelling Ino outward to the wall like a rubber ball, where she struck and bounced to the ground, leaving a wet red spot on the stone.

Thyme shrugged and moved forward to kick her again, as Hayate worked over his shock to make a move. The short, thick man's foot cut through the air for Ino's head.

She'd be a lot more properly manageable with maybe a snapped spine or scrambled brains.

And found his foot stopped solid by a growing wall of clutching sand.

He glanced around for the murderous intent driving the sand and looked to see the fierce eyes of another brat glaring down at him from the balconies.

In the next moment, the sand was gone and s pair of knives were placed at Thyme's throat, who was pressed down to the ground. Above him, Asuma was cooling glaring down into the young Musk's face.

"The match has been called," he said firmly.

* * *

"Gaara...intervened on behalf of that girl?" Baki wondered, flinching. "Why would he do that?"

* * *

"She's not for you," Gaara whispered to the open air. "She claims to exist for others, like a fool. I'll test that existence myself."

He narrowed his eyes as the sand quietly returned to his gourd.

A spirit still floating in the air and separate from her physically wracked body, listened and would have shivered if she could have. Then Ino thought of what this snake-freak had done to Sakura and steeled herself again before floating back to her body.

As soon as she reattached, she practically screamed at the sudden awareness of intense pain.

"She's back in her body!" one of the medics called out. "Give her a sedative.

She was vaguely aware of Team Ten coming to the side of her stretcher before the sedation jutsu and drugs started to work on her.

Was Shikamaru actually running to her side? That had to be a hallucination.

* * *

Naruto glared across as the fake shinobi, now free of the proctors and Asuma, he took a position with the others on the other side of the arena. He looked bored from where Naruto stood.

"Ino-san," Hinata said with a gasp.

Ryoko watched the musk as well.

"Ano..." she said quietly. "That...that is a terrible lack of respect for a w...worthy opponent."

* * *

"That was close," the Hokage said. "If she hadn't underestimated the danger at the end there."

"She's certainly surpassed the records we have of her performance," Ibiki noted.

"She's part of the team that captured the Haruno girl?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked.

"Apparently a long time acquaintance of the same girl," the interrogator agreed. "Tragedy has been the motive for improvement in the past."

* * *

Naruto turned away from the jerk Musk to snap a look toward the medics carrying Ino out of the room as she screamed, a bitter shiver anger working its way down through his body as he did so.

"Naruto Uzumaki..." Hayate called out

He straightened and then turned about.

"Against Shino Aburame!"

"For real?" Naruto shouted. "That makes six of us that had to fight other Konoha shinobi. What's the deal?"

Temari, entering from the medical area with a relieved expression rolled her eyes and turned toward the shout.

"There's more of you, idiot!" she shouted back before walking up toward the balcony.

"Naruto-kun, isn't the entire point to test our strength?" Hinata asked quietly. "Even against each other?"

"But that's not what that was!" Naruto declared.

"No, but they're right," Kakashi said. "That's the intent of this exercise. One other thing, Naruto..."

"Yo, are you coming down here or not?" Hayate called out.

"...you're going to be late," Kakashi said and Naruto knew that he was smiling under that mask.

Grumbling, Naruto leaped down to the arena floor to stand across from Shino, who was already patiently waiting for him.

"Are you ready then?" Hayate asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said. "Hey, Shino."

"Naruto," Shino said with a nod. "Your patriotism is noted and appreciated, but do not expect me to go easy on you as a result."

"I won't," Naruto said with a smile. "As long as you don't mind the fact I'm going to win here."

"You would be equally well advised not to underestimate me," Shino said.

"Just start the fight," Hayate said, stepping back.

"Hai!" Naruto called out, "let's go."

He nodded at Shino, who returned the look and then Naruto charged forward into a leaping kick. Shino barely ducked under the blow and found himself facing a mule kick as Naruto landed.

The Aburame rose up his hands and pushed out so that the powerful kick only sent him falling backwards and having to roll up to his feet.

Naruto twisted about, looking a bit smug as he followed to press Shino, hoping to keep the Aburame busy from using whatever his family's jutsu depended on.

"I know I've heard you've got some hot stuff," Naruto called out. "But you can't do jutsu if you can't do hand signs."

"That depends on the jutsu," Shino declared with huff as failed to completely block a blow.

Naruto followed up the successful attack, ignoring a sound of buzzing, and Shino broke off contact from the pressing assault. The blonde haired shinobi followed close behind, however.

They moved through the more uneven ground then, kicking up dust around them such that, for a moment after a particular strike into the ground by Naruto that raised a large amount of dust, the two lost sight of each other for just a moment.

"You and Hinata have been slowly improving your Taijutsu the past couple of years," Shino said as he danced away, focusing on defense and staying out of Naruto's easy reach. "And incorporating similar motions."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said. "Ryoko-chan spars with her a lot too, nights I think."

"That's what I thought," Shino said. "Her particular st..hmph..style is to invite pursuit and trip up the attacker until they're off balance and she presses the attack on the unbalanced foe."

Naruto paused and considered that thoughtfully.

"Is that what she does?" he said before shaking his head and continuing. "Whatever, why does it matter?"

"It matters because both you and Hinata have become skilled in pressing an attack, and individuals lean towards performing what they are most skilled at," Shino explained.

At that Naruto kicked Shino's legs out from under him and the other boy fell backwards to the ground, exploding into a cloud of insects that swarmed over Naruto.

"Wh...what the hell?" Naruto demanded.

Some meters away, a stone started to straighten up as a similar swarm of insects peeled away from it to reveal Shino.

"Kikaichu," he said. "Parasitic insects that feed on chakra. I took the opportunity to produce a clone of insects in the moment the dust cut us both off. I'm sorry, Naruto, but this match is..."

And the Naruto covered in the bugs vanished from view just before a kick came in from behind and slammed into the small of Shino's back. Wincing and stumbling forward, collapsing to his knees and then rolling to a standing position, Shino turned to face his attacker in surprise.

"Yeah, I took the same opportunity," Naruto said. "If there's anything sparring Ryoko will tell you, it's that an easy opening is a trap."

* * *

Shikamaru and Choji came in from the infirmary in the back with Asuma in time to catch sight of both reversals and froze at the base of the stairs.

"Is that Naruto?" Choji asked.

"Was that a kage bunshin?" Shikamaru wondered. "First Ino and now Naruto. If everybody keeps this up, they're going to make me look bad and force me to take myself seriously. Tsh, how troublesome."

They continued up the stairs, watching the developing fight.

* * *

Naruto continued the attack then as Shino retreated back, a cloud of insects separating him from his opponent.

"Your use of clones is not unexpected," Shino noted as Naruto started to move around the swarm. "I did take precautions myself."

One section of the swarm broke off and started making its way further up the arena away from either Shino or Naruto.

Naruto, the Naruto visible, blinked and followed the progress of the swarm with an initial note of confusion and then gasped.

"Hey! Move!" he shouted.

Suddenly, another rock rose up from among the debris and leaped up into air away from the oncoming swarm. A moment later, the clone that had warned Naruto was swarmed and soon popped into a cloud of smoke.

"Damn it!" Naruto shouted. "How the hell did you know I was over here?"

"The female Kikaichu has a subtle smell that the only the male can pick out unerringly," Shino explained as his bugs pressed forward to close in around Naruto. "One such female is somewhere on your person."

"You put a bug on me?" Naruto protested.

"Given what you've witnessed, I think it would be safe to say that is a correct, if imprecise, way of describing my jutsu as a whole," Shino said by way of explanation.

Naruto landed some distance away amongst some debris and cursed as several of the rocks around him melted away into further swarms of insects that started to swarm up his legs.

"Itai!" Naruto shouted.

"A distraction only works if it cannot be distinguished as such," Shino noted.

The sound of dispelling henges behind Shino turned his attention around as two other Narutos appeared out of the rocks around him and first one and then the other struck him.

At one time, Naruto's skill with Taijutsu had been weaker than Shino's, but that had passed some time ago, and with two Naruto's pushing in on him, he had little choice but to call most of his insects in to swarm between him and the attacking clones.

Naruto himself brushed off the bugs that still pressed him, feeling the drain on his chakra as they fed off of him. As most of the bugs pulled off to return to and defend Shino from his clones, however, and he was able to brush off the majority of the remaining bugs such that the ones left were not a big drain on his stamina.

He set down to catch his breath as two more of his clones erupted into smoke and he had a sudden burst of imagination of what it must feel like to be eaten alive by insects.

However, he could see that Shino was favoring one side heavily and breathing tightly. His clones had done some damage before they were eliminated.

Grimacing, he stood up and went through the hand signs again to summon more clones.

Shino's eyebrows widened as another five clones came into existence around his tired opponent. His estimations of Naruto's stamina were far, far off the mark it seemed, if he was still able to create so many clones this far into the fight.

"All right, Shino," the Narutos shouted. "Are you ready?"

"Of course," Shino said, straightening himself as the five hordes came in towards him.

At the edge of the swarms, two Narutos leaped out as one other paused to serve as a spring board for the next two. He'd launched the fourth Naruto forward just as the bugs swarmed over the clone and dissipated him into smoke.

The clones that had leaped on their own landed in the midst of Shino's bugs, but lasted long enough to catch and hurl the next two further on. Then they were devoured by the bugs, bursting into insubstantial smoke.

The last two clones hurled out a pair of shuriken which Shino felt scrape along his skin as he failed to completely dodge them, then they landed just behind Shino's swarm, almost within reach of Shino himself.

"Got you now!" both of them shouted as they came in.

Shino narrowed his eyes and flung out his hands, unleashing the last of his swarms outward at the two Narutos and he watched them burst into clouds of smoke.

Surprised, the bug user spread his hands to send his swarms looking for the female bug that he'd placed on Naruto, hoping that it had escaped Uzumaki's purge in the last exchange.

All the bugs swarmed out across the arena then as Shino scanned the area, glancing down as two more groups of insects came up from behind him and hung close about, responding to a desire fore having a defense close by he assumed.

The insects spread out, scouring the field and roaming further afield as Shino scanned with his own eyes, guarded by only the swarms that had stayed with him as his allies spread themselves out thinner and thinner.

His eyes scanned backwards then and confirmed that there was nothing behind him that could be a henged clone. He was about to turn back when he realized that there were also no shuriken behind him.

Arching an eyebrow he glanced down at the swarms at his feet more closely, but before he could see that the supposed swarms were actually two whole entities, they each burst into smoke to reveal copies of Uzumaki Naruto.

And this time his allies were farther out and more scattered than before, and he was already worn from the last such surprise attack.

He had a moment to be embarrassed at being so deceived before he was thrown back unconscious.

* * *

"Well," a second Kakashi said as he appeared out of a burst of smoke. "This is the original prankster."

The Kakashi that had been watching the entire time laughed in response and dispersed into smoke itself.

"Wai!" Ryoko called out. "Congratulations Uzumaki-san! Wai! Wai!"

She beamed with desire for the next time they sparred, recognizing that some of the stratagems had been made to counter her.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly.

Farther down the balcony, Team Ten and Kiba watched with their senseis.

"That's clearly not that Naruto anymore," Shikamaru said, shaking his head.

"That's very surprising," Choji agreed as he ate his snacks.

"He's getting as dangerous as anybody else," Kiba noted.

Kurenai shook her head in surprise.

"To think that Naruto should advance so far," she noted, shaking her head.

* * *

"Winner!" Hayate called as he tried to avoid the bugs retreating back to Shino's unconscious form. "Naruto Uzumaki."

"Yes!" Naruto shouted happily. "Haha!"

Hayate watched and shook his head with a smirk.

He climbed up the steps with enthusiasm, meeting Hinata as she was on her way down.

"Congratulations, Naruto-kun," she said.

"Thanks, Hinata-chan," Naruto said and then blushed a bit. "Umm, sorry that I beat up your teammate."

"Oh," Hinata said nervously, looking down toward where Shino was being gingerly looked over by a pair of medics who looked like they might be insectophobes. "I'm sure he would have done the same, Naruto-kun."

"Umm, yeah, I think he actually tried," Naruto said nervously, scratching the back of his head.

"I...I should go see if he's fine," Hinata said, blushing and starting to walk past Naruto, but stopping and turning to offer Naruto a jar of medicinal herbs.

"Oh, thank you, Hinata-chan," he said. "Your medicine is great stuff by the way. Have you ever thought about being a medical ninja?"

"Umm, no," Hinata said.

"I'd bet you'd be great," Naruto said.

Hinata blushed and ducked her head briefly before continuing down the stairs towards where Shino was being looked over.

Naruto frowned briefly at the reaction, wondering what he'd said and then walked up the stairs the rest of the way, trying to puzzle it out.

* * *

Tenten had walked into the proctor's room swaddled in bandages and limping slightly to catch sight of the monitors that the proctors were watching.

"Tenten," a voice called out to her.

She looked and saw Iruka Umino regarding her along with a number of other chunin.

"Shouldn't you still be in the infirmary?" he asked.

"They said I'll be fine," Tenten said. "They won't let me back in the arena, but they said that I could watch the fights from here."

"Oh, I see," Iruka said. "Well, you've missed two fights and half another."

He pointed toward the monitors were Kiba was fighting a foreign shinobi, the fight being shown from several different angles. Tenten was impressed with the Inuzuka's prowess, but all the Inuzuka were powerful taijutsu specialists so that was no surprise.

"Who was the last fight?" Tenten asked.

"Ryoko Saotome," he said. "She dominated her fight entirely."

"I fought beside her in the Forest," Tenten said sitting down. "I'm not surprised. She was having a contest with Lee."

Kiba won his fight rather more brutally than Tenten thought was probably necessary. Though she seemed to remember the man she was facing making some disturbing looks toward some of the girls, so she wasn't too sympathetic.

Neji's fight lasted less time than she had expected, but it was a poor match up.

She watched as Shikamaru fought and found herself more and more impressed.

"Was he just being lazy that whole time?" Iruka wondered next to her, shaking his head.

Iruka sat up as Ino Yamanaka's match was called and her opponent was another of those Tanikagure.

"I know her," Tenten said. "I've met her at her clan's flower shop. She's an annoying, kind of shallow girl. This is too..."

And then the match started.

As it was over, Tenten winced with each of the blows that struck the girl after she was already incapacitated by her misfortune at the end. As the cameras showed her being taken out by the medics, Iruka dashed out of the room and Tenten limped to follow.

They found her being worked over hurriedly by the medical ninja and Ino herself unconscious. Her teammates and jonin sensei came in with her, but were stopped at the door by one of the medics.

Another approached them.

"Please, stay back and let us work," the medic said.

"Wh...what's wrong," Iruka asked.

"We're just getting started," the medic said. "But she had a good loud voice when she returned to her body..."

"You mean when she screamed in incredible pain?" Tenten asked rather insistently.

"Right," the medic said, glancing over to see her compatriot giving Team Ten the same speech. "It was clear and loud, no gurgling. That means her lungs weren't damaged by the blow to the chest."

"That's practically a miracle," Iruka said, thinking back to what had happened to her. "What about where she hit the wall?"

"We don't know yet, but she's obviously tougher than she looks," the medic said reluctantly. "But we're doing our best and it's best for you to let us work and return the news when we have it."

The medic pushed them gently back out of the room and closed the door, turning back to help with Ino and the other patients.

When Tenten and Iruka returned to the chunin room, Naruto and Shino's match was more than half-way done, but there was plenty remaining to see that Naruto had exceeded either of their expectations.

"All he did in the Forest was..." Tenten trailed off. "Support every fight with at least one clone simultaneously. That was at least four clones..." she blinked as every visible Naruto was dispersed. "...that I could see."

"There's a lot of impressive ones this year," another chunin noted, making a note as the fight continued. "Who'd have expected that Naruto to turn out so well?"


	21. Matches

"Shino," Hinata said quietly, offering a jar of her medicine to him as he was carried by on the stretcher. "Are you okay?"

He reached out quietly to accept it.

"There is no lasting injury, I think," Shino said as he sat up with a grimace. "Your...friend is quite impressive. I assume you were supporting him?"

"H..hai," Hinata said. "I'm sorry."

"There is no apology necessary," Shino said. "It is expected. However..." he grimaced. "Care is needed on your part now. Choji and Lee should not present much threat to you, even should you lose. I do not however, like the look of either the other three participants. They might do serious damage to you and not have any sort of regret."

Hinata blinked and frowned briefly, looking towards where the next match was being arranged.

Slowly, the names rolled through the remaining six participants to come down to the next match.

"Hinata Hyuga against Misumi Tsurugi."

Shino grimaced but nodded.

"Be on your guard," he repeated before lying back down and letting himself get taken back to the infirmary.

Hinata watched him go and looked upward toward first Kiba and then Naruto.

"Yeah, go Hinata-chan!" he called out loudly and enthusiastically.

Nearby Naruto, however, Neji stood and glared down at her, letting her know in no uncertain terms that he expected her to fail this challenge and embarrass the clan. At the same time, his very glare reminded her of her father's forbidding such a disgrace from occurring.

Swallowing nervously, she stepped out into the arena to stand across from Misumi who looked down at her through his cloth face mask.

"I've drawn the defective Hyuga heir," he said with a laugh. "Don't you think you should back out of this now, little girl?"

Hinata flinched a little and fidgeted.

"Just kick his ass, Hinata," Kiba shouted from above.

"Yeah, like he said!" Naruto called out. "I know you can do this, Hinata-chan!"

Neji merely glared, and that chilled her worse than the man that she was set to fight.

Turning around, she faced her opponent with a hesitant nod.

"I am ready," she said.

"It's your funeral," the man responded with a laugh.

* * *

"You'd think he'd learn from watching his teammate trashed by the last shy little girl," Shikamaru noted with a yawn.

"I tend to find men underestimate women fairly regularly, even when they should know better," Kurenai noted sharply, eliciting a brief cough from Asuma.

* * *

Hinata brought her hands together in a quick series of hand signs to trigger her byakugan.

She almost didn't have time to complete the seals as Misumi reached out toward her, his arms stretching farther than they should have been able to. As her hands pulled apart from the seals, a stretchy arm wrapped around her wrists and held them together.

The other arm reached to try to lay a firmer grip on the Hyuga girl who reacted by flipping up and over the man's head.

Or at least trying to.

As she pulled up into the air, Misumi pulled down with the stretched out arm that bound her wrists together and slammed her into the ground.

* * *

"The idiot," Neji said in firm disapproval, shaking his head. "To be so completely beaten so quickly. She is not a true Hyuga."

Naruto cursed and turned around to face Neji then.

"Shut up!" Naruto snapped. "I'll bet she can tan your hide if she needs to."

"Hmm," Neji said with a humorless smirk. "I doubt that would ever come to pass."

"Ano..." Ryoko said. "Hyuga-sama, i..is she not yo..your cousin?"

"What of it?" Neji asked coldly.

* * *

Hinata slammed into the ground hard and gasped, but didn't let herself take time to grab a breath. The other arm would be coming in soon and if he managed to grapple her completely and tie down her mobility then she was finished.

And she wasn't going to let herself be taken out without a fight. Not after what she'd seen from everybody else so far.

With her byakugan, she could see that Misumi's bones and joints were almost totally soft and dislocated and being controlled by pure chakra.

Of course he would want the first attack.

Against such a technique, any Jyuken blow would be devastating.

Hinata rolled to her feet and pulled back firmly, sending chakra to her feet to root herself there as she did so.

"Damn it!" Misumi shouted as he stumbled forward off balance.

And, almost immediately, Hinata released the chakra holding herself locked down and dived forward past the second arm and between the rubbery man's feet as he slammed into the ground and glanced back at her angrily.

She leaped up to her feet and backflipped away as Misumi's feet tried wrap around and nail her down.

"Are you trying to tie me up in a knot or something?" the stretchy genin asked irritably. "I'm sorry but that's not going to work."

Hinata watched with chagrin, and not a little disgust, as the man slithered and folded around himself to undo everything that she had done with the past couple of moves, taking his feet and then pulling her forward with his stretchy arms.

Gritting her teeth, she leaped forward into the pull, aiming a flying kick towards his head. Misumi snickered and pulled his head to the side, allowing the kick to move past him harmlessly without shifting his stance.

And then it whipped back into place, smacking into Hinata's own head she flew past. The Hyuga heir careened off toward the side only to be jerked back toward Misumi where his second arm waited the twist up around her.

Hinata shook her head clear, noting that the man's head butt hadn't been as firm as it should have been for a human skull and thus hadn't done as much damage as it could have.

* * *

"What sort of style is that?" Kiba asked as the stretchy man proceeded to make Hinata into a living paddle ball.

"It's not a style," Shikamaru said. "It's the result of a medical procedure developed for spying."

"Soft Physique Method," Choji noted. "It's like my family's multi-size techniques."

"If Hinata can't use her hands," Asuma said. "How is she going to fight back effectively?"

"I've taught her better than that," Kurenai said. "Just watch."

* * *

Hinata kicked her feet downward, trying to reach the ground before she could be pulled all the way forward. Her feet contacted the ground and the chakra entering them stuck her solidly, but well within the grappling reach of his other arm.

Hinata thrust her arms up and down violently as the second snakish arm wrapped about her legs and started to pull, bringing Misumi's body closer.

"You think you're going to break my grip that way, brat?" he demanded. "My limbs are far too flexible for that to work."

He laughed as all Hinata managed to do was set up a wave in his arm and not at all strain his hold over her. Laughing at the cartoonish nature of the waves produced in his arm by her struggles, he stepped forward to give his arms more room to wrap her up.

And then one of the folds of his arm doubled up on itself and a hard looked entered the little girl's byakugan eyes as she pulled her bound hands together and pointed the fingers out straight to meet the bending flesh.

The Hyuga's chakra slipped through the tenketsu point and tore a destructive pathway through Misumi's chakra network, tearing into the muscles and nerves surrounding it until his arm fell numbly to the ground and Hinata's arms were freed up.

* * *

"Hmm," Kakashi said. "He turned her strength into a weakness, so she turned about and did the exact same thing. Kurenai's turning out to be a good jonin-instructor."

* * *

Misumi's eyes widened and he rushed to finish wrapping her up in his other arm, but the hands were separated now, and not easily wrapped up. Even as the stretchy genin bound one arm to Hinata's body, the second jabbed into another tenketsu point. and she was freed up.

Whipping up a leg to lash out at her resulted in the little girl simply reaching out and tagging the stretching limb in four different spots.

In desperation, he whipped forward on his remaining operating leg to try bash his skull into her again.

She did hold back, enough not to deal any permanent harm to his brain, but she reached out to push two fingers into the skull between the eyes as it came in towards her.

And Misumi fell back shook several times before toppling to the floor around Hinata in a pile of stretched out coils.

* * *

"Didn't that happen on a cartoon somewhere?" Choji asked.

"Yeah, but the girl in that one just jammed her finger on the head butt," Kiba said.

* * *

"Winner, Hinata Hyuga," Hayate declared to Hinata's relief.

Taking a deep breath, she let her byakugan settle away and started to work up the steps. Upon reaching the top, she was caught up in a whirling hug from Naruto that brought a rapid blush to her face.

"Yeah! You did it!" Naruto declared.

"Wai!" Ryoko cheered.

Naruto set Hinata down and frowned as she sat there wobbling dizzily.

"Hinata-chan, are you all right?" he asked. "Did you..."

And Hinata fell over unconscious in a faint.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto called out in shock and worry as Kiba and Kurenai started running over.

Neji stepped forward ahead of them and scooped Hinata up and away.

"I'll take her to the infirmary," he said simply.

"There's no need for that," Kakashi said calmly. "She is simply...overwrought, it was merely a faint. There is no injury."

"It is my task to protect the Main House of Hyuga, Hatake-san," Neji said. "This is my duty."

"No, it's your decision," Kakashi said.

"Ano..." Ryoko said, frowning and feeling a sick sense of deja vu as Hinata was carried away.

* * *

Hinata woke up, probably not more than five minutes later, with Neji standing over in a private corner.

"That was a pathetic, graceless show you put on in your match," Neji said coolly. "Truly a failure is one even in victory. But I have something else to tell you."

Hinata flinched with each word.

"I'll be speaking to your father," he said. "About Naruto."

The Hyuga heir's eyes widened.

"He might not be beneath _you_," Neji said. "But you have the misfortune to be born an average girl into an high clan, and he is beneath the Hyuga. I am sure Hiashi-sama will agree."

He started to walk out of the room.

"Yo..you're wrong!" Hinata protested. "Naruto-kun is kind and brave and gentle and..."

"And what does _any_ of that have to do with the Hyuga clan?" Neji asked sharply over his shoulder coldly.

* * *

Sakura remained restrained with both normal and chakra-limiting chains in her hospital bed even while she sat curled up in her bed with Anko sitting across from her and tapping her foot anxiously.

A Yamanaka clan member sat nearby and two Anbu guards were at the door outside, and two more inside. They didn't have an accurate gauge of how powerful Sakura was if she was allowed to be set off, until then, they were making sure she couldn't escape to cause herself or anyone else trouble.

Anko glanced at the injury to the girl's leg and felt that it would be sometime before she was up to full mobility. Though with the changes to her DNA and Orochimaru's obsession with immortality, that would be difficult.

"Anko-sensei," Sakura said quietly.

"Hmm?" the snake-summoner asked.

"Is something wrong?" the pink-haired girl asked, eyeing the tapping foot.

Anko smiled grimmly, of course, she'd be keyed up to such signs of agitation.

"I'm missing the Chunin Exam preliminaries," Anko said. "It'll be a while before I can even see the videos and it's never as good as live."

"Oh," Sakura said, unconsciously licking her lips.

The door opened as a nurse came in with food and Sakura looked up at the sound. The door was held open as the Anbu guards checked everything, and Sakura had a clear view down the hall as the elevator opened and a bed was rolled in a mild urgency.

It was enough for her to know that the person on the bed was in serious condition, but slow enough for her to identify the person on the bed.

"Ino?" she gasped, sitting bolt upright in the bed.

Instantly, the various senior ninja were moving to control Sakura. Anko, however, looked to see what had set the girl off and caught a tail end of Ino Yamanaka being carted off toward an operating room.

"What happened to Ino?" the pink-haired girl demanded, narrowing her eyes as she was held back.

"Sakura!" Anko snapped. "Calm down, now."

Sakura stopped resisting but held herself tense and ready to move. Anko wondered if she was looking at the second spirit again...or the snake. She glanced slightly up toward the Yamanaka who shook his head quietly.

"Is she talking about my little cousin?" he added after signaling that the snake was still under control.

"Yeah," Anko said, looking toward Sakura. "I'll go check on her status, you calm down."

Sakura grimaced and shook her shoulder with a snarl before her eyebrows softened and the primary, gentler spirit came into clear control, nodding.

Anko glanced toward the Anbu and signalled for them to back off and then turned to the stricken nurse, looking down at the food that had been scattered over the floor.

"Get her another lunch," she ordered sharply before leaving.

Anko moved into the hallways toward the operating room listening for sounds of activity. She was shaking her head as she did so. There were quite a few decent medical ninja, but there were no great ones since Tsunade-sama and Shizune had left.

Pausing at the observation window of each operating room, she waited until she found the one Ino was in and looked around for a charge nurse.

"Can you give me a status on the girl in that room?" she asked, pointing toward where Ino was being worked on.

The nurse looked over and then down at his files before finding the name.

"Mitarashi-sama. Ino Yamanaka?" he said in a tone of confirmation. "Cracked ribs, skull fracture, her left hand is shattered. Prognosis from the tournament infirmary says that she'll be fit for light training in a month. There was some trauma to her right eye near the skull fracture and they working to minimize it right now."

"Did the tournament send a video of her match?" Anko asked.

"May I ask what the interest is, Mitarashi-sama?" the nurse asked.

"Sakura Haruno is a friend of hers," Anko said.

The nurse looked distinctly nervous at that mention. He must have been one of the ones that had been on duty when Sakura had woken up.

"I'm trying to keep her calm while we get a seal expert in," Anko said.

She was really hoping the restraints on Sakura would be at least less necessary when her parents were given the go ahead to visit.

"So, do you have that video?" Anko asked.

"That won't calm her down...if she's a friend," the man said.

"I'm going to watch it, not her," Anko said irritably holding out her hand.

Hesitantly the man handed over a tape and Anko snapped it up before looking around for a room to watch it in, spotting an office room further down the hall.

"Thanks," she said with a smile.

She returned the tape a few minutes later with a grim expression.

"Any word?" she asked.

"On her, no," the man said. "Hasn't been long."

Grimacing, Anko handed him back the tape and left, glancing down the hall to where more Anbu were guarding Sasuke Uchiha and nodded at them.

They'd at least been successful in keeping Sakura from knowing that he was in the hospital a few doors down.

Walking back into Sakura's room she nodded at the pink-haired girl.

"She had a bad match up," Anko said. "Almost won her fight, but made a mistake at the end and got hurt for it. It sounds like she's going to be fine, though. Be out of action a couple of weeks."

* * *

Kodachi should have probably been in a hospital, but her injuries were hardly the most severe that she'd had in the past. Her face gave clear indication of that.

Mokya sat off to the side and Kodachi could still feel the shame peeling off of her. A part of the Black Rose she normally kept asleep was making hard for her to not feel that the girl deserved it.

Which was bringing a shame to Kodachi's saner side herself.

Across from Mokya, she was reporting to a jonin with a facial scar on one side of his face. He'd said his name was Raido.

"So you know him," Raido was saying.

"Yes," Mokya said, somewhat more subdued than normal. "He's a mercenary chi-sorcerer"

"What would he be doing here?" Raido asked.

"He is a spy," Mokya said. "During the School Wars, he helped Happosai keep the various schools and clans busy with petty affairs. Until my Aunt tricked him into betraying Happosai."

She took a deep breath.

"Ten years ago," she said. "He got his revenge on my Aunt and my parents were caught along with her."

She frowned as she cast her mind back and remembered her aunt's last words as they found her battered at the feet of Kinnosuke, surrounded in rough circles of her own spilled blood.

"Bad timing," she'd said with a sigh.

And then the screams had started as a bubbling brown mist of living chi similar to Kodachi-sama's sparks washed over her aunt and parents.

If Kodachi-sama and Herb-sama had not been nearby...

She shivered.

"Mercenary, so he could be working for anyone?" Raido said in irritation.

* * *

"The rumors are true," Kinnosuke said as he ate his meal. "There is a Saotome here, a girl, about twelve years old. Black hair and glasses."

The person sitting across from him said nothing but simply ate their own meal. Though he occasionally looked up and about nervously. Clearly uncertain about dealing with the man across from him.

"Did you want me to tell my other client?" Kinnosuke asked.

"Have you already told her anything?" he asked in a weasely sort of voice.

"I doubt she even knows I'm here," the mercenary said.

"Then don't," the skinny, person eating with Kinnosuke said. "But I'm sure the Musk would be wishing to know that Kodachi is here."

"I can see if they'll hold off for whatever Orochimaru is doing," the mercenary said. "As always we'll hide our moves in the shadow of the ninja."

"Both the new Dynasty and the loyalists will come?" the contact asked.

"Definitely," Kinnosuke said. "The problem is keeping Joketsuzoku out of it. And others. Only so much confusion is useful. I'm curious as to what your interest is, but that's your business."

* * *

The Hokage frowned deeper as the second to last match escalated higher and higher. Neither Gaara nor Lee were willing to back down. More the point, he didn't think they were capable of backing down.

Unfortunately, there was no way to stop as long as either participant was capable and willing. So all he could do was watch until it ended in the predictable bloody mess.

Gaara might have even stepped it up past that into outright murder if Gai hadn't stepped in at the last minute.

He shook his head and puffed on his pipe. It seemed to be that whenever there was a large number of exceptional participants, that there was also a larger than normal amount of brutality.

The last match was one-sided and fortunately ended without any serious injury, but Sarutobi wished that another leaf could have won it regardless.

And all that left was drawing numbers for the first rounds of the finals.

"These shall be the matches for the first round of the finals," Ibiki said once the numbers had been drawn.

"Ah!" Naruto shouted. "Why do I get the only bozo in the group?"

"Bozo," Dosu said threateningly. "We shall see about that."

"Bye?" Kiba declared. "You mean I have to wait?"

Shikamaru didn't say anything, but his mouth twitched as he looked over at the blonde Sand girl who glared back at him appraisingly.

"Wai!" Ryoko declared happily. "I get to spar Uchiha-san!"

Neji and Hinata looked at each other silently across several faces. The elder Hyuga kept a cold fury on his face as he took in the nervous expression on his cousin's face.

Gaara was glaring across at the badger like man he'd stopped from killing that blonde Leaf girl. There was an uncomfortable look to the boy's face while the Valley "shinobi" seemed just bored, or perhaps he was just stupid.

It was hard to tell.

Baki grimaced irritably as the match-ups were declared. From what he could tell, there was nothing in that to reliably attract enough attention to act as a distraction for the invasion.

They'd have to wait for the second round of fights, perhaps even a second day.

* * *

Asuma watched as Shikamaru and Choji came to a stop as they came within sight of Ino's room and looked past them to see a pink-haired figure standing in the doorway.

"That'll be Sakura," he said cautiously.

"What's she doing there?" Choji wondered nervously as Shikamaru stepped forward with a grim look on his face, reaching his hands together.

"It's all right," another voice said nearby.

Asuma turned to see Anko there watching carefully. To many it wouldn't look like she was close enough to do anything, but he knew Anko. She wasn't a full jonin, but she was no slouch.

"She's been sealed," Anko explained. "At least what Orochimaru put into her has."

Asuma nodded and walked past his subordinates to move up into the doorway, catching Ino's voice as he came closer.

"We'll get you some sunglasses," Ino was saying. "It'll be fine."

Sakura leaned against the door frame without doing much more than nodding until Asuma got closer and she twisted about suddenly to give the jonin a look at her face for the first time.

He kept his face composed and friendly, but it was still something of a shock to see the slitted snake eyes with purple marks and the white scaling along the ridges of her brows closest to the bridge of her nose. Even though her skin hadn't taken on that deadly white color, it was still easy to see Orochimaru's mark stamped on her.

Across the girl's forehead was a bandage that her long pink hair had hidden from behind. The signs of a recently placed seal, probably the one that Anko had spoken of.

"Asuma-sensei!" Ino called out, waving at him and a clearly nervous expression on her face as she glanced toward Sakura.

Ino was bandaged up pretty heavily as he'd expected. There was a cast about her crushed left hand and wrappings around her head and chest. A medical patch had been placed over one eye.

"Hey, Ino," Asuma said with a smile, looking past Sakura and patting her on the back in a comradely manner. "You're Sakura, right? Why are you standing out here. Shikamaru, Choji, come on in. We don't want to take too long, Ino will need to rest soon enough."

Sakura blinked in surprise, her budding hostility set off balance as the companionable slap on the back pushed her into the room.

"Itai!" Sakura muttered as she stepped wrong onto her injured leg before reaching a chair and sitting down.

"Hey..." Anko said from where she stood down the hall. "I don't think you should..."

"Anko, come on in with us," Asuma called out. "And you two I thought I said come in."

Shikamaru and Choji exchanged a look and followed as Anko pushed herself in.

"Hey, Asuma," she said angrily. "Don't be so laid back with pushing around my student."

Inside, she was imagining a sigh of relief. If Sakura's seal was going to break on a glance, that would have been the time for it. The shaking of her head as she lectured Asuma was certainly not feigned however.

"Sakura-chan," Ino said in a bit of surprise and embarrassment. "Don't be such a bear, Asuma-sensei."

Asuma shrugged and moved toward the window, leaning against it as Anko walked in and moved closer to Sakura.

"She's fine," Asuma said. "Isn't that right?"

"I could hurt you!" Sakura protested with the odd character of mixed emotions that seemed to happen when both the free parts of her were agreeing at least on words.

"Don't worry about that," Anko said. "Asuma is a full jonin. He could likely shut you down without seriously hurting you, no matter what."

"You haven't seen me, Anko-sensei," Sakura said in a voice that was clearly her aggressive shadow spirit.

"Sakura-chan," Asuma said. "Don't be stealing time from Ino."

"Right part forward, Sakura," Anko said as if lecturing.

After a moment, the aggression started to fade back and Sakura's face took on a confused and embarrassed expression.

"Sumimasen," Sakura said, glancing up nervously as Shikamaru and Choji entered the room and sat down looking across Ino at her.

"So, that was some fight, Ino," Asuma said, turning toward his student. "You did good."

"I didn't do well enough," she muttered.

"You made an error in judgment," her jonin noted. "But, you had to take the chance regardless. I do not think you had another chance. Your taijutsu is not so strong. It's actually pretty weak."

"Tsh," Ino said bitterly. "I know that."

"But I think it's time to start addressing that," Asuma said. "If I can't count on you keeping your cool and dropping out of a bad situation, I think it's time we started training you to deal with bad situations."

"As soon as I..." Ino started to say.

"As soon as the doctors say you're ready," Asuma insisted. "And these two will be joining you."

Shikamaru broke off his watching Sakura to wince at that.

"Does that mean we're working harder?" Choji asked then, curiously.

"I know that was going to be troublesome," he said bitterly.

"You'll be training for the match coming soon anyway," Asuma noted.

"You should be happy we're going to get training," Ino snapped. "We're shinobi of the Leaf, we have to..."

She winced then and reached around her chest.

"You should stay calm, Ino," Sakura said quietly. "You don't want to stress your ribs."

"Hai, hai," she responded, but did so coolly. Then she frowned and continued speaking. "We need to get stronger."

Asuma and Anko exchanged a look and nodded.

"Anyway," Anko said. "I've only gotten to see the video of one match, what were the results?"

"There were some real surprises," Asuma said. "All of Kakashi's team won their matches. And two of Kurenai's."

"Oh, so the Hyuga girl didn't make then?" Anko said, shaking her head.

"Actually," Asuma said. "That Naruto beat Shino Aburame."

"Naruto?" Ino gasped, wincing as she did so. "Beat Shino?"

"Yeah, it was a big surprise," Choji noted, eating out of a chip bag.

"Unfortunately," Asuma noted. "Gai and I only had one victorious student each. Lee's in the operating room now."

"Ehh, Choji, you lost too?" Ino asked sharply.

"Okay," a nurse said as they came in the room. "That should be enough for..."

Her eyes fell on Sakura-chan and she stepped back nervously.

Sakura grimaced, her eyes taking on a hard cast as she stood up sharply.

"Sounds like visiting hours are over," she said before walking out of the room, her limp less noticeable.

The nurse virtually leaped out of the way as Sakura came to the door. Anko walked out herself, close behind her new student.

Ino wanted to say something then, but not in front of everybody else. And merely watched her old friend and rival limp out of the room.

Anko cursed as she was slowed in following Sakura, and the pink haired girl got out of her sight.

* * *

Sakura was still feeling unusually aggressive as she returned the nervous looks from the medics and nurses that had, until now been helping her in her medical training. She gave them hard edged glares, but she didn't feel that rising urge to kill that had been driving her through the forest.

Finally, she came to a hallway and leaned against the wall, letting her injured leg rest slightly. The aggression didn't really fade, but sort of drifted to the back of her head as other emotions came forward.

She thought back to the conversation with her parents, the Hokage and Anko looking on and explaining things.

* * *

"Do you know how much you've embarrassed us?" her father had demanded harshly when he'd finally said anything. "I can't believe this from you. Stealing scrolls and infiltrating the Chunin Exam with enemies of the Village! We raised you better than that."

"Dear, please," her mother had said before looking back at Sakura. "We're just glad you're okay, dear."

Her mother had moved to hug her and then stopped on meeting Sakura's eyes. Taking a deeper breath, she finished hugging Sakura then, but it still felt hesitant and uncertain to Sakura.

"I'm not okay," she'd said quietly, drawing a flinch from her mother. "And you know it. You're shaking like a leaf and barely holding me."

"Sakura-chan," her mother said, stepping back. "We're...I'm just..."

Sakura's gentleness had already been fading away, but then the aggressive part of her pushed forward and she gave her parents a hard glare.

"Your daughter will be in the care of Anko Mitarashi here," the Hokage said, stepping in before anything else could be said. "And we think it is best that Sakura take up residence with her for the time being."

Anko had reacted then with surprise.

"My place?" she responded. "I don't have eno..."

"You're being allocated a larger place," the Hokage noted with a laugh. "It is only for near future. I assume Sakura will prove herself capable of deciding her own living quarters soon enough. I assume that will be fine with you?"

"That will be," her father accepted as her mother wrung her hands.

Sakura wanted to ask her parents something else, something less hostile, but the words were swallowed in the back of her mind. Instead she merely turned her head away and sat back on her bed.

* * *

Anko laid a hand on Sakura's shoulder as she found the girl and sighed.

"Let's go back to your room," she said. "You have one more night observation. Tomorrow you're in my...new place. We'll both have to get used to it."

Sakura nodded and sighed as she straightened and started to walk with Anko, her limp more pronounced.

"That Ino's a good friend," Anko noted.

"She's a rival, not a friend," Sakura said.

"You can be both," the hot-blooded woman said, patting Sakura on the back.

* * *

"Of all the foolish things," a white-haired old man declared before downing a small shot glass.

"It can't be helped," the woman sitting across from him said smiling broadly as she devoured her food with gusto. "It is who I am."

The old man wore green robes with a red vest and a horned forehead proctor wrapped about his forehead under his hair. Two red lines worked down from his eyes to his jawline. He had to have been in his fifties despite an economy of motion and vibrancy of life that belonged to a much young man.

The woman was in her early thirties and dressed in pink fighting robes. Her short brown hair was decorated with an intricate red ribbon. She had a smooth look to her face and skin that, combined with her short stature, made her seem younger than she was. A white and blue dress and blouse outfit was folded off to the side of her seat at the table.

Both of the two were covered with an impressive number of minor bruises and cuts. In places, there was slightly burned flesh as well. And their outfits on both sides could have used a day or two of constant laundry.

"Who does things like that anymore these days," the old man asked, shaking his head.

"As if I could allow such an august personage as Jiraiya of the legendary Sannin to cross my path without testing my strength," the woman said. "Besides you agreed."

"I was thinking you were talking about another sort of test of ability," Jiraiya said with a brief flush.

"I am Kurumi Tendo of the Redeemed School of Martial Arts," the woman declared. "The Wandering Master of the Chikara virtue. I challenge you to a match of strength, skill and stamina."

She sat back down and went back to eating.

"That sounded like a come on to you?" she asked.

"Well..." Jiraiya said with a playful smirk.

"Hmm, pervert," the other woman said. "Where are you going from here."

"Why, I wander the wind," he said cheerfully. "Researching my books and seeing the world. Where are you going, are you looking for more fights?"

"Of course, of course," Kurumi said, she paused in her eating and raised a small cup of sake. "And next time I find you, I'll win."

"Hmph," he said. "I'd have to say you have a way to go for that."

"Of course," she said. "Otherwise it wouldn't be fun!"

Both raised a cup and clinked them together with a cry of Kampai.

Jiraiya looked east and thought that he'd be in Konoha within a few hours to report to the old man.

Meanwhile, Kurumi looked west and wondered why Musk had been seen this far east of the valley.


	22. Training

"We'd like to see Sasuke, please," Naruto said as he and Ryoko came into the hospital the next day.

"I'm sorry," the nurse said. "But Sasuke cannot have visitors."

"What?" Naruto shouted. "But we're his comrades!"

Ryoko looked over her shoulder away from the desk as she noted the sound of people shuffling curiously. She could recognize the flavor of fear in other people well enough from having lived in it long enough.

"Ano..." she turned about to see what was up and cocked her head to the side as she saw a pink-haired girl stepping out of a hallway.

"Haruno-san?" she asked in curiosity.

"Huh, Sakura-chan?" Naruto reacted, blinking before turning about and catching sight of Sakura. "Sakura! Ino said something happened to you."

He darted over toward her and stopped as Sakura turned away from him sharply so that he couldn't get a good look at her face.

"Eurgh! Naruto!" she snapped. "Leave me alone. I don't want to deal with you right now."

Naruto winced back at the viciousness and frantic emotion in her voice.

The woman with Sakura was the proctor from the second exam and she reached out to put a hand on Sakura's shoulder. The pink haired girl let it roll off and tilted her head just enough that Naruto and Ryoko both could see one green eye though it shadowed by her hair.

"Every time you see me, you pester me!" Sakura continued. "But you're always with that Hyuga or that Saotome, or both! Quit being such a perverted two...three-timer and leave me alone!"

Sakura jabbed a finger toward Ryoko.

"Sakura," the woman snapped commandingly. "Right part."

She gripped Sakura's shoulder again, a little more firmly this time and whispered quietly in the pink-haired girl's ear.

"We've got to go," the woman said. "I'm sure Sakura will be more agreeable later."

Sakura took in several deep breaths and allowed herself to be led out of the hospital as the woman muttered.

"Yeesh, you're twelve years old," Anko muttered. "You don't even know what's involved in this sort of thing so why do you get so worked up. Tsh. Two-timer and three-timer? I doubt you know what you're talking about, and I'd expect that kid knows even less."

"Ano..." Ryoko asked, wondering what was wrong with a man who had multiple girlfriends. Wasn't that a sign of manliness?

"Ryoko-chan," Naruto said quietly as Sakura was taken out of the room. "Wh...what was that?"

"Oh, Naruto," Kakashi's voice said as he came out of a hallway himself. "You should keep your voice down. This is a hospital."

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said. "What's wrong with Sakura and they won't let us see Sasuke."

"Naruto," Kakashi said. "Look at Ryoko-chan. Is she yelling at the top of her lungs and disturbing the doctors and patients?"

"Ano," Ryoko said nervously as Naruto turned to look at her. "I...I do not be...believe..."

"It's all right, Ryoko-chan," Kakashi said. "In any case, it is time to start on your training for the finals. Ryoko-chan, I believe Kodachi wishes to speak to you."

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei," Ryoko said cheerfully, bowing.

"As for Naruto..." Kakashi said. "I believe I've found someone that will help you more than I..."

"Ehh?" Naruto said. "But I thought you were going to teach me. Wait! Are you going to be training Sasuke?"

"Uzumaki-san," Ryoko said, quietly. "Sh...shouldn't you be a little quieter?"

"You are, aren't you?" Naruto demanded.

"It's not like that," Kakashi said, waving him off. "I just think you'll be better off with this other person. Ryoko isn't complaining..."

"Ano...but don't I need to learn some cha...chakra as well?" Ryoko asked.

In his continuing campaign to point out when Ryoko broke her normally strict speech patterns, Naruto turned around toward, her opening his mouth.

"You sai..." he started to say.

"Ahh, here he is," Kakashi interrupted quickly, pointing down toward the exit and drawing Naruto's attention away from Ryoko's loosening speech.

Naruto and Ryoko both looked away toward the entrance to find a tall man with short black hair and tight black and red clothing, his eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses.

The young Uzumaki stared for a moment and then called out again.

"The closet-perv!" he declared.

"Ebisu is a closet-perv?" Kakashi asked.

* * *

Sakura looked about her as Anko busied herself with moving her things about in the mostly empty house before clearing a couple of chairs for herself and Sakura.

"Sakura," she said. "Have you noticed your mood swings?"

Sakura frowned quietly as she nodded and sat down.

"It's not really a mood swing," she said. "I have...sometimes, two emotions at once. Want two things at the same time. It's all the time now."

"I'm going to explain why to you," Anko said simply.

Slowly and carefully, using her own notes to make sure she got things right, she explained what had been explained to her.

Sakura blinked and listened with something of a shiver as she imagined the soul, no just an echo of a soul, of a twin sister that was never born.

"That's why you resisted so well," Anko said. "To help with that, I'm going to be asking for a Yamanaka to help us with some of the training. I'll see if..."

"Ino," Sakura said. "Or her father. Make it one of them, please."

Anko considered that briefly.

"I can do that," she said. "In the mean time, I need to test you to see where your skills are. Let's get some bedrooms set and the kitchen stuff out and then we'll head to the training ground."

* * *

Ryoko blinked as she took in where Kodachi was sitting stiffly next to a chalk board. She was injured, but not healing, which was strange.

"Ano, Kodachi-sama," she asked. "A...are y..you not naturally yin aspected?"

Kodachi shook her head.

"Then, why..." she started to point to where it seemed clear that her ribs were damaged.

"Mistress Kodachi would like to begin the training now," Mokya noted with a smile.

"Ano..." Ryoko said, blinking in confusion, but nodding and sitting in Seiza.

"Have you learned to clear the chakra problem yourself?" Mokya asked, reading from some prepared notes. "I have heard how you made use of the chakra drainer to turn it against him, but you will not have such helpful enemies normally."

"I can make it easier..." Ryoko said, moving through several hand signs before finding one that moved her chakra in such a way that she could see more of the chi around her. "But the hand signs keep changing."

Mokya looked over toward Kodachi who nodded and stood up to start writing on the board and then thumping it demonstratively.

"Chi is ever changing," she had written. "We must constantly adapt our bodies and mind. Obviously..."

"Ano..." Ryoko said as she read the rest. "I must constantly adapt my chakra coils. B..but I cannot use hand signs through a whole fight j...just to do that."

"Of course not," Mokya said. "We shall work on a finding a solution, but first, Mistress Kodachi would like for me to explain the virtues of the Redeemed School."

"Virtues?" Ryoko asked, blinking. "A martial artist must always defend the weak? Yes?"

"That is only one facet of one virtue," Mokya said.

The girl moved the board as Kodachi sat down, grimacing slightly, a pink flush rose to her cheeks as Mokya noticed this, but she still moved toward the board and pulled a paper over to in front.

It read Iyoku, Fuki, Chikara, Gimu and Airen.

"First is Iyoku," Mokya said. "Will. If you do not have an ambition to hold to your own, then nothing else matters. The ambition might change, but without such motivation, none of the other virtues matter. You are essentially flailing in the wind, aiming at nothing and accomplishing nothing."

"Ano..." Ryoko said, blinking curiously. "My ambition...?"

Mokya moved to the next in the list.

"Next is Fuki," Mokya said. "Freedom, liberty. In order to enforce your Will, you must not let yourself be influenced by anything external or internal. You can be advised or instructed or paid. But no one demands anything of a Redeemed School martial artist. We do not have to do anything. We choose to act or not to according to our Will. Not according to our desire or fears or loved ones."

"No one?" Ryoko said, in confusion. "Sh...should we not at least obey our family in a...all things?"

Kodachi made a noise that might have been a short laugh at one time, but now sounded more like a cough.

"You can choose to obey," Mokya said.

Ryoko bit her lip nervously.

"Chikara is next," Mokya said. "Strength and Agency. If you do not have the power to enforce your Will and your Freedom, then it will not matter what your ambition is or that you chose a particular action. We must all be strong and must ever be growing in strength in order to enforce our Will or to protect those we choose to protect."

"Hai, hai!" Ryoko said, nodding. "This...this I understand."

Kodachi smiled and nodded. Young students always understood strength, or thought they did. She herself had only realized there was much more to it than raw power after reaching Disciple.

"Gimu," Mokya said. "Responsibility. We all have duties. And these are duties that we must fulfill. You must finish what start. Once you have chosen to do a thing, it is your responsibility to to do that thing to the end as completely as you can."

"B...but," Ryoko said, firmly confused now. "You said that we should not let an...anything make our choices for us."

"I also said that you can choose to obey," Mokya said. "I have chosen to serve Mistress Kodachi. If do not serve her to the fullest extent..."

She looked over toward Kodachi who waved her on encouragingly.

"...even when it is inconvenient," she continued. "Then I have let my action be determined by sloth...or wrath...I have undermined my own Freedom."

"Ano..." Ryoko said, blinking. "Y...you cannot change your mind then?"

"No, that would also undermine your Freedom," Mokya said. "But the effects of any choice you make are your Responsibility."

Ryoko nodded slowly.

"Airen," Mokya said, pointing to the last virtue. "Compassion. You must care about others and avoid harming people as much as you can. Without Compassion, you undermine everything else. You undermine your Will by creating obstacles that you need not have had otherwise. You undermine your Freedom by alienating others and denying the choice of their company. You undermine your Strength because those who fight with you will be stronger than if they merely fight for you. You undermine your Responsibility by ignoring the harmful effects of your choices."

Ryoko nodded quietly.

* * *

Jiraiya looked at the boy that had "requested" to be his student the day before and shook his head in consternation. By now, Ebisu had reported to the Hokage that he was there and delivered the scroll that the Toad Sage had for him.

"So, Naruto," he said. "You're taking the Chunin Exams in a month."

"Hai," Naruto said. "And you're going to train since you've got nothing better to do than peep on girls."

"Tsh, Show some respect to your teacher," Jiraiya said. "You're the one who came to me to learn. Anyway, you remember what I said about have two types of chakra?"

"It's what was happening when I was fighting the chi witch, right?" Naruto asked.

"The...did you say 'chi' witch?" Jiraiya noted.

"Yeah," Naruto declared, nodding. "Ryoko-chan and Mokya-san called her a 'false master'. While I was fighting her, I kept getting angrier and angrier and that red chakra started coming out. Until Kodachi came and everything calmed down."

"You've know about chi then?" Jiraiya said, curious.

"Hai," Naruto said. "I've been challenging Ryoko-chan since she came to the Village...umm...two years ago?"

He shrugged.

Jiraiya frowned. It seemed as if the boy hadn't yet tapped the Kyuubi's chakra on his own. He'd had it drawn to the surface by a corrupted chi adept.

Like a magnetic pull of evil upon evil.

That made things a bit more complicated, but the principle was the same.

"How do you do?" Jiraiya asked.

"I almost beat her last time," Naruto said. "Really. Her Taijutsu is amazing."

"Hmmm," Jiraiya said. "Well, in any case, so far you've been learning techniques to control your chakra precisely and release only so much so you don't get tired. What you should be focusing is power before control!"

He reached out to pinch Naruto's cheeks as he talked and then let them go.

"With your amazing stamina, you don't tire as easily as anybody else," Jiraiya continued. "So you should take advantage of both your own amazing chakra and that other second chakra to use so that you can use much more powerful jutsu. Like the jutsu I am going to be teaching you."

Naruto looked on with stars growing in his eyes. Then he paused, thinking back.

* * *

"What the hell is this for?" Joseibi asked, pointing down at the small sphere of iron that her sister had chained to her leg.

"Imouto-chan, please mind your language," Ryoko had said. "It is for strength training."

"Strength training?" Naruto asked sitting off to the side.

"The weight will help build up stength, Uzumaki-san" Ryoko said, looking toward Naruto and then back to a pouting Joseibi. "It is not too heavy for you, Imouto-chan. I made sure it was within your training limits."

"Right," Joseibi said. "So now what do I do."

"Please run three laps around the training ground," Ryoko said, pointing.

Joseibi looked over her shoulder toward the suspiciously featureless training field.

"That's all?" she asked. "Three two mile laps with a ball of iron on my leg?"

"Hai," Ryoko said.

"All right, here I go," Joseibi said as she started to jog dragging the ball of iron behind her."

Ryoko turned toward Naruto and said in an undertone as Joseibi got out of hearing range.

"It is for balance training, Uzumaki-san," she said. "The ball will shift and sw...swing as she jumps to avoid or destroy the obstacles and traps an...and she will have to adapt quickly or be thr...thrown into more trouble."

"So why don't you just tell her that?" Naruto asked, confused.

"My fa...father never told me, either," Ryoko said. "I m..must not be as good a te..teacher because I h...have to explain to Joseibi, but a dem..demonstration is still better before the explanation. So I...I'll tell her after the first lap."

"You told her three laps," Naruto said confused.

"H...hai," Ryoko said, nodding. "S...so she'll be ea..eager for a break...even to listen."

"Okay, but...did you say traps?" Naruto asked at last.

Ryoko nodded.

"ITAI! U-EN-NE-CHAN!"

* * *

He had further memories of Kakashi-sensei's teaching style, which was somewhat similar to Ryoko's. And he had been exposed to Kakashi's teaching methods much more frequently than Ryoko's.

It matched a pattern though: simple goal, sadistic complications, explanation, more sadistic complications, PROFIT!

"Is this one of those things where you say I'm learning one thing, but I'm really supposed to be learning another?" Naruto asked Jiraiya suspiciously.

"Oh ho!" Jiraiya declared with a smile. "You're sharper than you look, so what might I be looking to teach you then?"

"Well..." Naruto said, scratching the back of his head and thinking back. "The Closet-Perv said that I don't have enough skill so I make too much chakra and waste most of it."

"All right," Jiraiya said nodding. "Go on."

"With the transformation I guess it uses so little chakra that I don't notice wasting it?" Naruto said. "Because you and Kakashi-sensei and the Closet-Perv all say I have huge amounts of chakra."

"Just so, and the last?" Jiraiya asked.

"If I can't tell when I'm wasting energy on small jutsu," Naruto said. "Then I need a large jutsu to practice with so I can get the control down. Because I'll have to get the control down to succeed?"

"Perfect!" Jiraiya declared with a smirk while he thought to himself. "Though you haven't realized that even that is a side goal toward teaching you to access the Kyuubi's power."

Naruto had also forgotten to ask anything about the sadistic complications.

"So! What's the jutsu you want me to teach me then?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Summoning!" Jiraiya declared as he bit his thumb and drew some of the blood across the ground to call forth the same large orange toad that Naruto had first seen him atop.

* * *

Hiashi looked down at his daughter curiously remembering her sitting before him and visibly shivering under his gaze and trying to both hold his gaze and look anywhere else but at him.

It had always been like this before.

Now, her shoulders were still hunched and her face was still nervous, but there was no shivering and there was a slight hint of a backbone that hadn't been there in the past.

He thought of Kurenai's pysch evaluations on Hinata, which had come to his desk since she first graduated some months ago. Half of it had been familiar to him. Hinata training to the point of exhaustion and building herself up higher and higher. But the second half had sounded to him at first to be a rookie jonin trying to sugar coat an issue.

Kurenai reported Hinata as being...hesitant. Hiashi knew that for as long as he had been training his daughter, in training she was fine, but as soon as she was put to the test, her confidence failed her and she gave up before she invested too much.

But here, he was, watching his daughter's match with both her and her jonin instructor in the training hall and he was seeing several points in which his daughter as he knew her to be would have given up and let the match be called.

Probably in a shower of tears.

"You see," Kurenai said. "Marked improvement, even from when she first came to Team 8."

"I had doubted the reports," Hiashi said. "But she has indeed improved. However..."

"She cannot defeat or even seriously challenge Neji," Kurenai said. "Is that what you are going to say?"

* * *

Ryoko and Naruto had left to go visit their teammate and she had continued on toward the family home to speak to her father and Kurenai-sensei, who had gone on ahead. Neji found her at the gates to the Hyuuga complex.

"You should forfeit now," Neji told Hinata. "You do not make a good ninja."

Hinata flinched as she turned toward the voice and felt herself shivering.

"You are too kind to be a ninja," he continued grimly. "You worry too much about hurting your opponent's feelings. And you have no confidence in yourself. Your sense of inferiority has an almost physical presence."

The younger Hyuuga bit her lip and narrowed her eyes in a dubious expression that could have meant a couple of different extremes, but Neji assumed was something he had taken as normal for Hinata.

"I doubt you would have taken the Chunin Exam if it were not required to be taken as a team of three," he continued coolly, "I expected you to drop out as soon as the second stage was passed."

Hinata glanced down for a moment and then back up.

"Am I wrong?" he asked. "Were you actually trying to become a chunin?"

"N..no," Hinata said quietly.

"It is as I thought. You were coerced by your team," Neji decided. "You should forfeit then, so that we can avoid the public disgrace of the Branch House defeating the heir of the Main House."

He started to turn away.

"No," Hinata said more firmly. "I...I wanted to change myself."

"Hmm," Neji said. "You really are a spoiled brat of the Main House."

Hinata flinched.

"People cannot change themselves!" Neji declared. "What you are is set at birth by the limits of your body and mind. These are things that cannot be changed. Losers are losers. The elite are the elite! You cannot escape these labels."

Hinata hands and held them up.

"I can see through many things with my byakugan," he said. "So I know you are just pretending to be strong here."

"I'm n..not, Neji-ni-san," she said.

"You train and train as ever," Neji said. "But you face a challenge and you fall down and roll over. Are you going to take the fool's example and start to refuse to accept your limits now?"

He smiled darkly and triggered his byakugan to take in even more of her body language.

As soon as he activated his blood gift, however, he started frowning. The cues he was seeing were subtly different than what he'd come to expect from his cousin. There was an extreme of emotion, and it was mixed. Worry for someone and...anger?

And she didn't have much if any sign of backing down.

"No," Hinata said meeting his eyes with her own byakugan active. "Naruto-kun..."

"Do not cal..." Neji interrupted.

"Na. Ru. To. Kun!" Hinata continued. "He is strong. He fails, and he tries again. He does not stop. N...never. He always stands up again."

"Then he is more of a fool than you, who used to know she was a failure," Neji said sharply. "And he will surpass himself. A loser is a loser. A failure is a failure. An elite it an elite. This is as permanent as is the difference between the Main House and the Branch House. Nothing changes."

"Neji-ni-san," Hinata asked. "How do you label yourself?"

He frowned and gritted his teeth, turning to walk into the Hyuuga complex.

"Then we will see the Hyuuga Main House embarrassed in a month's time," Neji said venomously.

* * *

"She is too compassionate," Hiashi said dismissively. "She cannot even bring herself to spar against her sister. How will she bring the will to defeat Neji given his grudge against the Main House."

"Hinata?" Kurenai asked confidently.

He turned to look at Hinata then.

"I'll f...face him," she said quietly.

"I'd rather you forfeit than to embarrass the house," Hiashi continued. "But if you insist in this vein, then I will be forced to take a personal part in your training. Do you understand what that means."

"Hai," Hinata said, nodding and cringing slightly.

"You will be involved?" Hiashi asked Kurenai. "Do you not have another student in the finals?"

"His family is taking up primary interest in his training, I will support him as he needs, but," Kurenai said. "I imagine Hinata might get the best use of my aid, given the nature of the byakugan."

"Hmm, your genjutsu will be useful in challenging my daughter's powers of sight," Hiashi decided. "Hinata, be ready for training tomorrow."

She nodded and stood up at the dismissal.

Hiashi waited until his daughter was gone to turn toward Kurenai.

"To what do you lay the cause of this improvement?" he asked.

"Friends," she said. "When you first sent her to the academy, she had no one. Since then she has befriended Ryoko Saotome and Naruto Uzumaki. Then, when she graduated, she had Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzuka."

"Precious people," Hiashi said idly. "The Hiruzen's sentimental philosophy. You think that can produce such results."

"She had nothing to risk before now," Kurenai said simply.

* * *

Anko nodded as Sakura's kunai was diverted aside with a quick motion. Sakura's taijutsu was passable, especially for one who so clearly favored genjutsu and chakra control in her recorded grades. Her speed and strength were better than average, but held the clumsy character of someone who doesn't realize who strong or fast they were. Her approaches and tactics were intelligent and well planned, but hesitant.

When the aggressive side of her took over, she didn't pay much attention to her leg wound, and it had had some time to heal by now. However, it was clearly having an effect.

The girl had more than creditable skill for a genin level fighter. Not that she'd be given that rank until a probationary period had passed. Even accounting for the genjutsu that had littered her mind by report, she had shown remarkable lack of judgment before Orochimaru got his hooks into her.

The snake-summoning special jonin shook her head and moved in to shut her new student down. She reached out with her hand and swiftly four snakes twisted out to wrap Sakura up and bind her.

"Not bad, not bad," Anko said with a smile.

"Don't patronize me!" Sakura snapped loudly and angrily as the snakes left from around her and she entered a ready stance.

Anko didn't bother to tell her to bring the right part forward. This was the right part as far as she was concerned. She smirked, knowing that the pink-haired girl's snake eyes were narrowed violently under the wrap-around sunglasses that concealed her physical changes.

"Is it okay to try releasing it," Anko asked. "I need to know what I might have to deal with."

Sakura froze and looked nervous as her eyes glanced up toward the seal that had been placed on her forehead only a handful of days ago. It was currently under a ribbon that had been sent to her by Ino along with the sunglasses.

The overall fashion was quite a bit girly and fashion conscious for Anko's taste, but then again, she wore a nigh see through mesh blouse under her trench coat.

"Are...are you sure about that...what if I..." Sakura started to say.

"Sakura, right part forward," Anko snapped. "This is the time for aggressiveness."

Inoichi frowned at the statement. He had not been happy to hear that Anko had told Sakura about her second spirit. It was clear that he felt it was a mistake. He was equally unhappy with the suggestion of unsealing the snake while the aggressive side was in control.

"Well? Yamanaka-sama?" Anko asked, giving a modicum of respect to the higher ranked ninja.

"I suppose it is necessary," he admitted.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders and started to undo her ribbon to reveal the black circles and lines that were traced across her forehead. A tiny smirk appeared on her face under her glasses.

"So you're going to let me strong again," she said.

"Hai," Anko said. "Probationary permission granted, five minutes. Your opponent is Anko Mitarashi."

The dots and lines on Sakura's forehead started to shift at Anko's words.

"You may want to shorten that," the pink haired girl said as she started to form a hand sign.

* * *

Anko was catching her breath as she looked across at where Sakura lay back sprawled on the ground, breathing heavily herself and a hand twitching slightly as Inoichi leaned over her.

"The snake is back in the seal," he said. "It doesn't look like five minutes was enough time for it to due any more damage mentally. Sakura-chan, how do you feel?"

"Everything hurts," Sakura said wearily as she sat up. "But it's nothing serious."

"I was referring to your mental state," Inoichi said.

"I'm fine," Sakura said.

Both her emotions and her body were tired out by the opening of that steal. Anko could quite clearly see how dead she felt remembering the people she'd killed or almost killed in that state. She reached around quietly for her sunglasses from where they'd fallen and the ribbon in her pocket to again hide the marks of her change.

Anko stood up and stretched out, taking in the number of slight cuts on her arms, Sakura had been able to graze her fairly consistently. Then she took in the general state of the training field. Sakura had no overly destructive jutsu, and though her strength and speed had increased, it wasn't to the level of that Lee fellow.

No, it was just raw, primal viciousness that had torn up the field as much as it now stood. A viciousness that lay on both sides of the match, but which only one had harnessed and tamed.

"Woo, that was a fight," Anko declared loudly with a laugh. "Okay! Now we can get started."

Sakura stared at Anko in outright surprise and shock.

"Started?" she asked.

* * *

Inoichi rolled his eyes slightly and shook his head, hoping this wasn't a mistake.

Ebisu had lost one student only to gain another, granted one whom he had to share with another teacher.

The problem was a unique one.

How to control the chakra to rotate with a speed and direction appropriate to the girl's control of chi.

It was doubly a problem in that he and the girl's other teacher had only half the problem. And her other teacher had...communication issues.

But they had come to a conclusion.

"Now, from what you Kodachi-san explained to me," Ebisu said. "Currently your combined mastery of chi and chakra only allows you to feel chi within about five feet. And you can occasionally stumble on a hand sign to give you a flash of vision of chi out to...twelve or so feet?"

"H..hai, Ebisu-sama," Ryoko said bowing.

Ebisu smiled and adjusted his glasses. It was good to have a student that showed appropriate respect.

"What is your range of perception with this ability, Mokya-san?" Ebisu asked.

"I can see out to about twenty feet, I can sense disturbances and intent with a hundred," Mokya noted.

"Do you understand what is going to happen?" Ebisu asked.

"H..hai," Ryoko said. "Y..you are going to blindfold me an...and attack me s...so that I must depend on my other senses."

"Not quite, Ryoko-chan," Ebisu said as Kodachi walked up in front of the Saotome.

"We are going to blind and deafen you," Mokya said.

Kodachi smiled briefly as she tapped a spot beneath each of Ryoko's eyes, and the vision started to fade out.

"Now you'll have to depend only on your chi senses to deflect these attacks," Ebisu said.

"And distinguish which are physical and which chi or chakra," Mokya noted.

Then there was the sound of a clap that rang through Ryoko's ears and all sound ceased.

* * *

"Me...help out with him?" Joseibi said. "Aren't I'm the one that's supposed to be coming here for training?"

"Consider that what this is, kit," Tsume said with a smirk.

"Training in what?" Joseibi asked as she brought another bottle of water in from the house. "Playing fetch?"

Tsume smirked as she slipped out a foot and tripped up the talkative Saotome. A moment later, there was an irritated, wet blonde fox and Tsume turned her attention back to Kiba and his training.

Kiba grimaced as he and Akamaru paused for moment in the remains of the debris around the training room.

He was going to be facing the winner out of Sasuke and Ryoko going by the chart. In either case it was a tough opponent, though he was hoping more for one than the other.

* * *

Lee had stopped listening to the doctors when the words "never be a ninja again" were first said in some form or another. Since then, he had stubbornly maintained his efforts to recondition his body regardless of what anyone might say.

He was trying to walk down the hall by himself.

Lee should have had a crutch. In fact, he was supposed to be at least a month away from even using a crutch.

Despite this, he was still making his painful way down the night-time hall one step at a time.

"If I can't do twenty laps around the hospital floor," he muttered weakly. "Then I will do...thirty flights of stairs..."

"What sort of foolishness is that in the halls?" a shrill voice demanded. "Keep your voice down, I'm in here trying to sleep."

Lee frowned in confusion and pushed open the door next to him and looked in to see a girl with long black hair in a hospital bed. One eye was firmly bandaged and he saw several other wrappings dealing with other injuries.

"Oh, aren't you the genin who fought that Temari from Sand?" Lee asked.

"Tsh, of course I am, you Leaf simpleton," Kin said.

Lee frowned and looked down the hallway for a bit and then back inside the room.

"What are you doing here then?" he asked. "Shouldn't you have been transferred to your home village?"

"Idiot," Kin snapped. "I can't be moved yet. I'll head back to Otogakure when I've recovered."

"Oh, then you must hurry and recover in order to return to your comrades," Lee enthused.

"Tsh," Kin snapped. "What nonsense."

"It's not nonsense," Lee said. "It's the Power of Youth! If you set yourself a challenge you must always achieve it regardless of how hard it seems! That is what it means to be a Genius of Hard Work!"

"That is ridiculous," Kin said. "How strong can you possibly get with such an idea?"

"There are no lim..." Lee started to insist before wincing and almost falling on his injured leg.

"How stupid can you be," Kin said. "Just go and let me get some sleep. It's late. I have a mission waiting for me as soon as I'm out of this pit."

"Right," Lee said after a short pause. "I'm sorry for disturbing you, I shall return to my exercises."

It wasn't much longer after that that Kin's sleep was disturbed by the sound of a frantic nurse.

* * *

"What? Choji's in the hospital now?" Ino shouted as Asume and Shikamaru visited her. "What happened?"

Some of the bandages on her face had been rewrapped. A medical eye patch was over her left eye.

Asuma looked distinctly embarrassed.

"Well, I had promised him all you can eat BBQ for fighting," Asuma said. "And, well, he ate so much food..."

"Choji ate himself into the hospital?" Ino asked disbelieving.

"Well, Choji's one of the least surprising people to be able to manage it," Shikamaru noted. "So the eyepatch...?"

"Oh," Ino said, raising a hand to it and undoing some of the straps to pull it up for a moment.

The eye underneath still had a small pool of blood built up in the base of the iris. Parts of Ino's previously clear blue eye had been stained darker forming a rather erratic pattern of brown and black lines and dots.

She recovered the eye a second or two after showing it.

"It'll be in complete working order again soon," Ino promised, "but it won't all be the same color I guess. Something about melanin and the iron content of the blood...I wasn't really paying attention. But look!"

She held up her broken left hand in the brace and start moving the fingers in an attempt to form the left handed portion of a hand sign. The strain on her face was clear even while she maintained her smile and as she got close to completing the sign, she winced visibly. At that point she breathed out and relaxed the hand within its brace.

"My Dad says there are some jutsu he can help me with as soon as I can make hand signs again," Ino declared happily. "At this rate, it'll be two weeks, no next week!"

"Ino, don't push yourself," Asuma warned her gently. "You'll have plenty of time to recover completely. If you push too hard, you'll hurt yourself worse."

The blonde frowned and looked aside for a moment, turning the patch covering her newly heterochromatic eye towards them.

"I'm being careful," she said.


	23. Schemes

Baki spoke to the three siblings gravely.

"This is the truth of our mission here," he said. "In the later rounds of the finals of this Chunin Exam, we will work with the shinobi of Otogakure to attack Konoha."

Temari stood up in shock at the suggestion.

"But...a war? Didn't we sacrifice so much for this alliance?" she asked. "A war now will cost many lives."

"In the end, shinobi are tools for war," Baki said coolly. "And the Alliance itself is a threat to our existence. You wouldn't know this very much, but there was a woman from the Land of Tea who acted as adviser for the Wind Daimyo."

He took a deep breath.

"She suggested relying on Konoha for missions due to the fact that we were still recovering at the time," Baki said. "Well aware that it would starve us of the money we would need to return to what we were"

"This policy has continued past that woman's death years ago," Baki noted. "We continue to receive few missions and then only from those unable to afford the services of the likes of Konoha. As long as this continues, we fade and Konoha grows."

He took a deep breath.

"If we wait much longer," he said. "Then we will not have the power to do anything about it."

He looked toward Gaara.

"For this," he said, "we will be depending on your strength, Gaara. It is for these reasons that shinobi such as you were created."

"Yeah," Gaara said.

He looked blankly out toward the window and thought about how, soon, he would have the opportunity to confirm his existence by destroying those that would deny it.

"How many do we have for this battle?" Temari asked.

Baki grimaced and gave them the numbers that had been allocated to them.

"That few?" Temari asked. "If anything goes wrong..."

"Then we must make sure nothing goes wrong," Baki informed them. "The Otogakure shinobi will have their own parts to perform."

* * *

Temari frowned as the waitress smiled at her and left behind her meal. In the next week or so, Temari would be part of an attack on this place.

She'd heard the reasons from their jonin, but it rankled her nerves. Beating up on some punks in the chunin exam was one thing, but a full out war?

Bragging aside, Konoha was one of the top powers for a reason, and even if her own village had compensated for the lack of funding by the families stepping up the level of training, there were still a lot of talented ninja in this village.

Still, it wasn't her concern. Her only concern was to follow her orders.

"Welcome to our restaurant, Ma'am," a waitress said, drawing Temari's attention.

There was a dignified older woman, she looked on first glance to be in her late forties, but Temari put a guess at an active mid to late fifties. She still had a dark red hair and clear blue eyes and carried a long, oblong bundle on her back that was most likely a sword.

Temari didn't mark as being actually able to use a sword, but did note the general quality of her clothing, a style from the Land of Tea, and the dignity of her bearing. This was some noble who had come to watch the Chunin Exams.

She'd seen a number of them around town and thought back to the last time that the Chunin Exams had taken place in Suna. There hadn't been near so many wealthy men and women in attendance then.

Apparently Konoha even had a superior tourist industry.

As ridiculous as that was.

"Tsh," she snapped to herself, continuing in her head, not voicing the thoughts aloud. "Now I'm looking for reasons to hate them."

The older woman sat down at the table across the row from Temari and set down her bundle respectfully, but in a way that painfully demonstrated a lack of understanding on how to place a weapon in easy reach. She looked up toward Temari and smiled at her.

"Oh, hello," she said. "Aren't you one of the genin taking these exams?"

"Hai," Temari said. "I'm guessing you're a client?"

"Oh no," the woman said. "If I had need of such services, I would merely speak to my son. He teaches a school of martial arts as inherited from his father."

"Martial artists?" Temari thought idly.

Most non-shinobi martial artists were weak wandering taijutsu specialists that had left a village but weren't powerful enough to be labeled as missing ninja. Or else they were from wandering clans that never joined a village. There were fewer and fewer significant warrior arts that didn't belong to a village somewhere.

"Hai, my son, Ranma Saotome, is a Grandmaster of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts," the woman said. "Though he and his wife have taken to calling it the 'Redeemed School'. A very powerful martial artist."

"I see," Temari said, nodding. "So what are you doing here?"

"My father and brothers do business with Konoha," she explained. "And they are here to witness the exams. I had nothing better to do, so I thought I would take up their invitation to join them. I understand the competition shall be quite intense."

"Hmph," Temari said bitterly. "You could say that. You carry a sword, are you a martial artist as well?"

"Oh, no," the woman said. "But this is my family's honor sword, and I am its keeper. It will go to either my son, since I have heard he now has an heir himself. But first I must be sure my daughter will have no need of it. Once that is decided it shall be his."

"Even if she does need it?" Temari asked, raising her noodles to her mouth and eating.

"The ritual only lasts for a few minutes," the woman said. "And Ryoko-chan has always performed the rehearsals admirably. I do hope that she should never need it, but she is such a skittish girl. I sometimes fear that the need will be inevitable."

Temari frowned as she tried to work out that statement. She forced herself to eat, despite having an odd and sudden loss of appetite. It was as if there a smell that was only unconsciously detectable to her that made the atmosphere less than appealing.

It sort of reminded her of Gaara when he was losing control, actually. Though the sense of impending personal pain and death was entirely missing.

"Is your daughter here with you?" Temari asked, curious and fairly oblivious to why she felt ill at ease.

Gaara had given her something of an elevated level of tolerance for such atmospheres.

"Oh, no," she said. "My husband took her on a training journey some...three years ago...maybe four? I believe she would be twelve by now. He wasn't supposed to keep her this long."

Her face looked decidedly disapproving.

"Ryoko-chan is mine to shape and mold," the woman said. "And he should know better than to keep what's mine away from me."

The Suna shinobi raised her hand to signal for the waitress and started to gather her money.

"Well," Temari said, nodding with a mix of boredom and instinctual caution. "I hope you find them."

She walked off, the conversation fading into the background as she returned to her own concerns.

* * *

Kanuro sneered as he walked down the streets of Konoha and took in the vast number of civilians as well as the rows upon rows of shops and stores.

Baki was right, the Leaf clearly showed the benefits of having taken the clients of the Sand for all those years.

It was time to do something about it.

And it would give Gaara something to kill other than the Sand ninja that failed to successfully kill him.

According to Baki, it was the fault of the Leaf that his younger brother had been turned into an all-powerful psychopath. That his humanity was stripped away to leave him as nothing more than just a living weapon to be pointed at the enemy while you stepped back and watched.

* * *

Gaara sat quietly on the roof top of the Kikyo Castle, calmly considering the future.

The future where he would be able to confirm his existence many times.

* * *

Kin collected her things eager to be gone from Konoha as soon as possible. If she spent too much time here, she'd be too late for her mission and someone else would get the honor of serving Orochimaru in the coming action. Any longer among these Konoha simpletons was going to start affecting her brain.

She still had the medical patch over the eye that little pink-haired bitch had ruined. When they came back, Kin was going to look forward to finding her and paying her back for that lost eye many times over.

The sound ninja couldn't believe that this was still called a Hidden Village.

It was huge and so very not hidden. There were civilians everywhere! That was not at all like Otogakure, where the ninja like her practiced their art in hidden caves scattered all over the place.

There was no wonder why the Leaf were so easy to fool and infiltrate if they intermixed so much with the civilians of their own land.

"Lee-kun!" a nurse said in exasperated worry. "You must stop this this instant. You are no shape to be doing this sort of thing!"

Kin snorted and followed the noise to catch site of that Rock Lee person doing push ups in the field outside his room. At least he'd chosen somewhere that he wouldn't interfere with anybody for once. Even if he was a moron to keep trying.

She drifted closer and listened to the numbers.

"One hundred ninety seven," he said harshly. "One hundred ninety eight..."

"Lee-kun!" the nurse insisted before turning to look helplessly at Kin.

"If I can't get to two hundred push ups," Rock Lee said in pause. "Then I will do three-hundred sit ups! One hundred ninety nine."

Kin widened her eye fractionally and was impressed despite herself. The bowl-headed geek doing that many push ups with the injuries he had was something that spoke of at least determination. Though he was still stupid to be trying to do the impossible.

"Two...hun..." Lee started to say and then collapsed to the ground predictably.

"Oh! Lee-kun!" the nurse declared and turned back to Kin hurriedly, apparently failing to even note that she was Otogakure before rushing into the hospital.

"What a moron," Kin said as the nurse ran off. "Why do you keep pushing yourself when you know you can never get anywhere."

Panting, Lee looked up.

"It is always impossible," Lee declared firmly, though gritting his teeth in pain and now trying to get in a position to do sit-ups as promised. "With hard work, you can achieve anything."

"Hard work isn't going to heal ruined arms and legs," Kin noted with a cruel snicker. "Why don't you sit down and spare yourself the pain?"

"I have always heard that too," Lee said, thoughtfully. "I have always heard...hff...that I cannot be a powerful ninja without the ability to mold chakra. That I would never be able to match a true genius. But..."

"But what? They're right," Kin said with a snort. "Look what happened to you, would a powerful ninja be in your position? Who told you that you could do such a thing?"

"Gai-sensei," Lee said. "He made me see. Gai-sensei told me that had something that surpassed all the rest of them."

"And what was that?" Kin asked. "Stupidity?"

"No," Lee said, shaking his head. "I am a Genius of Hard Work. Someone with no talent who works hard will always surpass someone with talent who depends on only that. As long as I work hard and believe, anything is possible."

"Or you'll break yourself in two," she said. "Your sensei sounds like a fool."

"Don't say that about Gai-sensei!" Lee insisted. "He is the one who saw my potential and help me reach for it. He is the first one to ever tell me that I was strong...that he believed in me and could help me big strong. Didn't your sensei do that for you?"

In the wake of his shouting, Lee doubled over again, shaking with the pain of his effort so far and the injuries he was aggravating.

Kin flinched for a moment and thought back to her own wretched childhood up until Orochimaru found her and took her in, teaching her the secrets of the jutsu she'd learned and making her a ninja. Not some waif on the streets, but a ninja, one of the elite.

"Tsh," Kin said, flushing. "There's a difference between seeing potential and imagining it."

The nurses were starting come back out, so Kin turned to leave.

"Hold on a minute," Lee gasped forcing himself to stand, much to Kin's amazement.

He reached around in his hospital robes and found something in his pockets, withdrawing it.

"One of my fellow leaf genin had an eye injury and I asked for this to give to her," he said. "But her injury is apparently temporary and she will not need it, so, perhaps you will."

Kin looked down in his hand and saw a dark blue velvet eye patch with the words "hard work" sewn onto the front. She frowned briefly, but reasoned it had to be more comfortable than the medical gauze she was currently wearing.

"Fine," she said a little bit less acidly than she intended as she reached out to take the eye patch out of his hand.

She rolled her eyes at the boy's sunny smile before the pain got to him again and he fell down, supported by a small army of nurses and orderlies.

The Sound ninja took a moment step aside and replace her uncomfortable medical patch with the velvet one and was gratified to admit that it did feel a lot better. It even looked somewhat pleasant on her, which she couldn't have said for the medical patch.

Not that she would have sacrificed her depth perception for a fashion accessory.

She shrugged and started out of the hospital pausing as she heard another person groaning in pain. Curiosity driving her, she moved toward the door the sound was coming from and slid it open to see a blonde Leaf ninja a year or two younger than her doing her best to manipulate a hand that was quite clearly in a brace that was supposed to immobilize it for healing.

"Tsh," she said. "Another crazy Leaf shinobi."

The blonde looked up toward her and Kin remarked the head bandage and the patch over one eye. She frowned and glanced toward the patch.

"You got that patch from Lee?" the blonde said, lifting her chin. "And who are you to call us crazy."

"That Lee person is killing himself for the impossible," Kin said. "And you're pushing to recover something that will be fine in just a week or two more. That's crazy."

"A week or two is two long," Ino snapped. "I can't train like this, so I have to get better. Practice my hand signs for a bit, and then doing some mild stretches to help my chest when the nurses aren't looking. Hopefully I'll be out of here early and I can start training."

"Why are you bothering to train?" the Sound ninja asked. "You lost your match didn't you? There's no hurry."

"Idiot! Who cares about the Chunin Exams," Ino snapped. "I am a shinobi of Konohagakure, it is my duty to protect this village and the people in it! What good am I here? Who am I protecting?"

"A ninja protecting people?" Kin said. "I ninja must just be strong, strong enough to beat anybody else. I'm going to be that strong!"

"What good's strength if it's only for you?" Ino snapped acidly. "What does it make? What does it give you? I never bothered with it before. I became a ninja because my father was a ninja, all my family are ninja. I slacked off. I parroted the Will of Fire in school and never understood."

She glanced down.

"And because of that, I had nothing to risk," Ino said. "I didn't push myself because there was no value. And someone else paid for it."

It might have been ridiculous to blame herself for Sakura's problem, but she had known the pink-haired would-be kunoichi for years and she had heard that the genjutsu in her mind had been laid there over days.

She should have noticed something, but she was just too stupid and too narrow-minded. Too selfish.

"I'm never going to slack off like that again," she snapped bitterly, raising her uncovered eye to meet Kin's. "No one is going to get hurt because I was too stupid and too busy daydreaming to notice a problem. I Know now. I know what the Will of Fire means. You have to love and protect the people precious to you."

As if to drive her point home, she slowly and deliberately curled her injured hand into a fist and pumped it once before releasing it again, grimacing as she did so.

Kin frowned and stepped back, the determination on the faces of these Konoha shinobi no longer seeming so idiotic. In fact, it was getting rather intimidating at least for a moment.

And then she remembered Orochimaru again and everything he had done for them. What could this girl who admitted to being a spoiled brat know about hardship and strength?

Some friend of hers got hurt and now she was determined to make sure it never happened again. That would only put her into the line of fire again and she'd get hurt herself instead. There was only one person Kin would do that for.

Orochimaru-sama.

For Orochimaru-sama she would do anything, brave anything. She knew that he saw her and recognized what she could do, what she could be and he would make her strong.

She'd put herself through the hell of extreme training for him at his slightest request. Nothing was too hard if it was for him. For him she would do anything even if someone told her it was imp...

Her one working eye widened suddenly as a thought came to her.

It was the same thing.

Her belief in Orochimaru-sama was the same thing these two shinobi were showing.

"Something wrong?" Ino asked, concern in her voice.

"No," Kin said sharply, narrowing her one eye again and heading on down the hallway to finish checking out and then making for the rendezvous point.

She had a little more than ten days to get there by the proscribed time. Any later and her place would be replaced with someone else.

Traveling alone didn't concern her, she was strong enough for any bandits that might get in her way. But it was boring for the first bit, so she started practicing with her senbon, growing irritated as they continued to be off the mark due to her lost eye.

There wasn't much for it. It would take a lot of practice and hard work to get her aim back. Or she could do what a lot of one-eyed ranged specialists did and resort to filling the air with weapons in hopes that one would hit.

Idly she started to experiment with her chakra, pooling it into her ears more and more to enhance her hearing as she practiced.

If she was a Sound Ninja, she might as well make better use of her hearing after all.

Then she noted, throwing out a senbon with a bell on it, that she had a sudden rough...awareness of the general location of her target. Something that seemed to fill in for her lost eye.

Tossing out her senbon she wasn't on target, but she was much closer than she had been to that point. A little more experimentation and she was sharpening her new discovery and improving her aim bit by bit.

She reached the rendezvous point brimming with pride at her discovery along the road to meet with her Kage, Orochimaru-sama.

Now she could serve him as well or better than she ever had before.

She smiled as she rang the bells tied to her fingers and tossed a fan of senbon out hitting accurately ten points around her, including in some places her eyes could not see.

And she was in plenty of time to receive the mission and not have anybody take her proper place.

* * *

Herb had been the last descendant of the ancient dragon whom earlier generations of Musk had thrown into the pool of drowned girl and sealed in that form. Curses were placed upon the ancient dragon, using such cursed arts as the strength sapping moxibustion and further ways to limit power, all to make sure that her strength could be inherited but not threaten her husband.

A fitting bride for a Musk King.

The story tells that the dragon had selfishly killed herself after bearing twins when the midwives and guards took their eyes off of her for just a moment too long.

Selfishly because she denied the Musk further children.

For Herb's mind, it was a selfish act because she had not thought of those children she'd already had.

Still, Herb could sympathize with the ancient dragon of the tale...the Musk royal's own great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.

And they had had the audacity to make chains more effective to control this dragon.

A way to make sure that they still had that power and experience to use as a weapon.

They had Kodachi and Basil.

Where, Herb did not know. All that the rightful ruler knew was that their continued life hinged on good behavior.

Good behavior.

Herb looked around at the silken surroundings that served as a prison cell.

Very comfortable indeed. The manse Herb had lived in with Kodachi and their child, extensive though it was, had nothing to touch the luxury of this room.

But it was hateful none the less.

It was a sign of a failure. Failure to protect the people precious to the aristocrat's life.

Family and Citizens alike.

Failing to prevent a return to old, tyrannical ways.

Such that the only possible way to protect them now was at the sacrifice of that pride that had forbidden the seeking of help from old allies or even old enemies.

The door creaked open and Herb prepared, uncertain what sort of visit this might me. The chi flows said that it was a friend long before the dragon-born's eyes found the servant girl that came in to attend to appearances.

"Great one," the girl said, bowing down at Herb's feet before retrieving the tools of her trade.

"Not so great, Coriander," Herb responded tiredly.

"You always say that, Great One," the girl returned.

Coriander looked like she might have been from one of the wolf lines, but Herb had never really asked to confirm.

The serving girl moved around behind Herb and started brushing through the long pink hair. It was several quiet minutes before she glanced toward the door and leaned toward Herb's ear.

"They are planning a raid, Great One," the serving girl said.

That brought a sigh of frustrated and unwilling anticipation.

"And they don't plan on you being there."

Herb shifted in curiosity.

"Where are they raiding?" came the question.

"Konohagakure," came the response.

Herb's eyes widened and the royal had to resist the urge to turn and face the serving girl. That would just call attention to Coriander's identity as a spy.

"They are mad," Herb whispered. "Even with me, as I am now, I would not turn that tide."

Training was not allowed and the only practice Herb received anymore were on raids unwilling participated in. And those did not receive even near the dragon-born's full effort.

Herb's powers had been slowly atrophying the past six years as a result.

Then eyes widened and a conclusion was reached.

"They're there," Herb said. "At least one of them is. One of them escaped and they're seeking to erase them before they can find the other or get word to me."

The royal grimaced bitterly, pressing well made lips together furiously.

"Should I...should I send word to those who wait?" Coriander asked.

Herb took in a deep breath, shaking visually.

"It would risk the people," Herb finally said in a whisper. "Precisely why I forbade sending word to Saotome. He would come in a blink to rescue us and when he moved, they would learn before he or they could reach us. The death toll..."

Herb took a deep breath.

"My family is not the only hostage leveraged against me," the royal concluded. "They will watch for treachery and I cannot speak to those I trust. No...I cannot help them."

Coriander paused and looked down at Herb, feeling the hopelessness pour off of the dragon in waves.

It was fortunate that the conversation passed no further as the door opened again, revealing a tall, regal man of reddish hair.

"I see you are being properly prepared, wife," the man said tauntingly.

Herb's mouth twitched.

"Tradition requires that I warn, again, of the folly of taunting a power far greater than one's own," Herb responded. "Off times, the leash does slip and then one is regretful."

"As usual, I thank you for your warning," the man said. "And assure that I have taken appropriate precautions. Make sure the woman is ready within the hour and deliver her to my chambers. It should be long enough after her last child now."

"Yes, Lord Hops," Coriander said.

In front of her, Herb seemed to be shrinking within herself from the effort of not revealing any emotion.

* * *

Three days later found Coriander kneeling in a more modest center of power. Angry hands pushed her down in front of a line of woman of varying levels of severity as they took her in.

"What does the Musk want here?" one of the central women asked. "It's eight years since Herb betrayed his trusts and murdered his own family to return to old tyrannies and we have taken the better of every fight. We hear no threats."

"Lady Matriarch," Coriander said. "I was not sent..."

"You're a runaway? You told you came on behalf of King Herb," the matriarch said.

"I came on my own," Coriander said. "For Queen Herb."

That attracted some attention.

"Herb does not know I am here," Coriander repeated quietly. "She would say I am risking our people, but...I have spoken to others. We do not think that it is fair that she take all the pain on herself for our sake. We are willing to risk."

"Explain yourself, girl," the Matriarch said.

And Coriander did.

The Matriarch sat back, considering and looking towards the other women sitting with her.

"Take her somewhere and feed her," the matriarch said.

After the girl was escorted out of the small, primitive seeming hut, the women began discussing what they heard.

"It is agreed," the Matriarch said. "We cannot move so far without attracting suspicion."

"Correct," an older woman said.

"That is fine," the Matriarch noted. "I think I have an alternative."

"All roads are watched, Matriarch," another elder warned.

"Yes, but some of our...neighbors don't need roads," the Matriarch said with a wide smile. "I believe he and his wife are visiting tomorrow."

There was a pause.

"Yes," one of the elders said. "Yes, Matriarch Xian Pu. That will work."

The purple haired woman frowned and considered other issues.

"This should not have escaped us," Xian Pu said. "Since Happosai was put down, we grew to depend too much on Nabiki Tendo and Kodachi for our intelligence. All of us did."

"They were useful," another elder reminded. "And Kodachi was...is of the Redeemed School and would not betray a trust."

"And we returned that by letting her family be shattered," Xian Pu snapped. "And blaming her hus...wife for it. It is an insult to allies when you expect them to do all the work for you."

"Nabiki should never have been trusted to begin with," another noted.

"As I recall," Xian Pu said tightly. "I had given the same advice before we hired her."

"We don't have a system established any longer to train spies," an elder noted. "We'll have to...hire ninja in the interim."

There was a grimace of disgust in the pause.

"Just as well," Xian Pu said. "Mousse and his wife have two tasks to perform then."

* * *

Kurumi sat in the manse, which nobody had taken care of for the past few months it seemed, and looked at the wall in the back bedroom.

"The Black Rose..." she noted, regarding the design burned into the wall there by the process of yin used to quick decay and stain the wood. "Xian Pu said that Herb killed her eight years ago. So what was she doing playing witch in a town here?"

She paused as she heard voices outside in the front of the building. Idly, Kurumi turned to face the doorway to wait.

"This is the place, Lord Hops wants anything that can prove she is still alive dead," a voice said. "And that includes anybody that might have seen her."

"The village as a whole then?" a second voice said. "Are there any worthy wives?"

"Not really, so let's..." the first noted as he stepped into the bedroom where Kurumi waited. "Oh, looks like we get to start on the village a bit early. Who do we have here?"

Kurumi smiled and cracked her knuckles.

"Master Kurumi Tendo of the Redeemed School of Martial Arts," she said jovially before bringing a pair fingers up to her neck and drawing them across. "Have you washed your necks?"

* * *

Kinnosuke sat in his hotel room, watching out into the street, looking for the Anbu that patrolled the area. They were good, they were very good, and Konoha's apparently had experience in avoiding chi senses.

He knew why, of course, but it was still annoying.

Considering his next task, he turned back to look at the item that he had killed Nabiki Tendo for.

The tome which she had sold to the highest bidder.

The reason Kodachi and Herb had arrived at the last moment to save that little kid's life and force him to flee.

But at least he had gained the tome and Kodachi hadn't.

"She must have found another source to learn from," he reasoned.

Predictably, Kodachi favored the element of wood as indicated by the sparks her living chi had taken the form of.

Wood generated Fire and overcame Earth, which was why the sparks had dissolved the acid of his clone so easily. Even blind, Kodachi was a bad match for him.

He had no interest in helping Orochimaru or getting in his way. The same with the Musk, he had completed his contract with them.

Kinnosuke had a task to perform for whoever pulled Gosunkugi's strings, and if he wanted that payment then he needed to complete the task.

Apparently Saotomes that were under the radar went at a premium these days.


	24. PreEvent

Ryoko took a deep breath as she made the hand sign to form the chakra. At least that much was becoming easy to do.

The flows of chi around her became slightly more discernible, though not quite yet what would be called visible, and she regarded those flows as she stepped forward and tried to run up the tree.

Under normal circumstances, the flow of chi through a person and a tree, or other stationary object, were steady and did little to nothing to get in the way of a ninja shaping their chakra to walk up the side of the tree or wall.

Ryoko was a chi adept who naturally shifted the flows of chi to best balance with herself and the environment around her. Seven years of Kakeru Umareta and Utsuro Kamae training meant that such little things came to her as natural as breathing, or at least relatively so.

The result was a fluctuating chi flow that lightened her body to make amazing leaps and acrobatics possible and let Ryoko be ready to act from almost any posture, she needed a moment to adapt to positions she hadn't trained with.

"In this case it is more like the water-walking exercise," Ebisu had noted after a moment's reasoning. "Which is our problem with your senses as well. You have to alter the chakra to match your chi to best effect and vice versa. You have an increased number of variables."

Ebisu and Mokya watched as Ryoko reached about halfway up the tree she was practicing with and then fly out in an atypically ungainly fashion as she was launched away from the surface suddenly.

"She's getting better, Ebisu-san," Mokya commented.

"Hmm, it's interesting, given that she has at least three variables to consider apparently," he noted. "She takes to principles quickly, though. We should try the blind and deaf routine again in the next hour."

Kodachi turned her head to face the man, an old habit that didn't particularly matter now with her eyes gone. But Ebisu had said something that brought an old matter to the front and which she had thought she had decided already.

Saotome analytical ability.

Initially, Saotomes often had problems learning new techniques. They would fail repetitively, often in embarrassing fashion. But once they had a principle and had used it practically, it became a weapon in their arsenal.

Not the technique.

No.

Saotomes operated on a more fundamental level than that.

For most martial artists, a technique was the end result of training. They would learn to produce a consistent result and simply increase the effectiveness and efficiency.

For a Saotome, a technique was a single application of a principle.

Before Ranma, the Hiryu Shoten Ha was a powerful, but situational technique that was easy to slow to build and easy to spot if you'd seen it before. It had existed in that form for thousands of years and the only real technique related to it had been crafted by the Musk to counter it.

Ranma had introduced at least five new innovations of the principles involved within a year of learning it.

Much as she despised the elder Saotome, Genma was likewise capable as shown by his taking the principles of thievery and turning them into deadly martial art techniques easily the equivalent of the Joketsuzoku.

Kodachi stood up and wandered closer to where Ryoko was training.

"Mistress?" Mokya asked, provoking a calmly raised hand.

Kodachi felt the chi of Ryoko's attention direct her way and directed a continue gesture to the girl.

"Ano..." Ryoko said, blinking but looking towards her other teacher and Kodachi's assistant.

"Mistress Kodachi would like you to continue," Mokya said, trying to not sound confused herself.

"Hai," Ryoko said. "Su...sumimasen."

She took a deep breath and approached the tree again. Kodachi waited and paid attention to Ryoko's motion and the flow of chi around her. After a moment, she felt the shifting motion as Ryoko's foot lost traction from applying too little chakra.

And immediately afterward, there was a crack and a shift in the chi about the tree to imply that it had been struck. Ryoko was flung backwards through the air, well clear of the tree and giving plenty of space for Ryoko to make a flip and land neatly.

As soon as she felt her footing slip on one foot, she'd pushed chakra into the other to push off violently and bring her clear.

A deliberate application of an experienced principle.

Granted, they were trying to teach principles here, deliberately. But Ryoko had stumbled on one they weren't focused on and was making practical use of it. As Kodachi stood there, the same thing happened twice more.

And she wasn't just altering her chakra. She was shifting her chi flow, something she was already used to.

So...Saotome wasn't a result of some would-be taking advantage of a name.

Genma Saotome had other children.

And had taught them.

Kodachi stood up straight and frowned severely, her emotional state leaking out into of her along the chi so that Mokya saw the ripples about her, Ryoko paused for a moment as Kodachi's battle aura seemed to become visible to her and even Ebisu thought he saw a faint line of light along Kodachi's outlined body.

"Is...something wrong Mistress?" Mokya asked nervously.

Kodachi immeditately calmed down and shook her head, putting on a smile and giving Mokya a talking sign.

"Hmm? Oh," Mokya said, clearing her throat. "Of course, everything is fine! The Black Rose cannot be so easily upset by...umm...OHH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

Ebisu blinked and turned around to look at Mokya who cleared her throat again and sat down pleasantly while Kodachi gave her a thumbs up.

* * *

Jiraiya turned around from watching the girls in the creek below to check on Naruto and had something of shock.

Three separate Narutos were each making attempts at summoning frogs. They were still summoning tad poles, but still.

"What are you doing?" Jiraiya asked cautiously.

"I'm practicing summoning, what's it look like?" Naruto asked.

"I was asking about the clones," the Toad Sage said pointing and narrowing his eyes.

"Oh, I was just thinking," Naruto said. "Back in that forest when the snake-freak was fighting Sasuke and Ryoko, my clones got defeated and suddenly I knew what had happened. So I kind of figured that learning something knowing stuff, and if it works, I could study three times as much in the same time. Or more!"

"That isn't a particularly good idea right now," Jiraiya said quickly.

"Huh?" Naruto asked. "Why?"

Given Jiraiya wasn't sure how much Naruto knew about himself, he hadn't wanted to call attention to the situation.

"There are some...dangers for you in particular, especially given other things."

"You mean pulling out the red chakra?" Naruto asked.

"Right," Jiraiya said.

"There's something dangerous about it?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

Jiraiya took a breath and shook his head.

"How much do you know about that seal on your stomach?" the Toad Sage asked, looking down toward the seal that he had fixed on the first day.

"The seal, you mean where the..." Naruto quieted down then with a suddenness that told Jiraiya what he needed to know.

"You know about the Kyuubi then," he said.

Naruto frowned and crossed his arms, all three of them.

"Why didn't you tell me you knew about that?" Naruto demanded.

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" Jiraiya countered.

"Because I didn't want to be treated differently," Naruto declared as if it was obvious.

"And I didn't want you to worry about it," Jiraiya said. "And didn't know for sure if you'd been told."

"So what's this got to do with why I should use clones to quick study?" Naruto asked.

"For normal jutsu or taijutsu, this is no problem," Jiraiya said. "But here we're trying to use the Kyuubi's chakras. With just one of you, I can handle it well enough if something happens to make sure the Kyuubi stays put, however, if the Kyuubi chakras take over just one of your clones, it will take over you as well."

Naruto stared blankly for a moment.

"Why would I want to use that sort of power?" Naruto asked.

"Because if you can control it, it can be used purposefully without turning into a monster," Jiraiya said.

"Hmmm," Naruto said, growling under his breath. "So can my clones do other stuff then?"

"What do you mean?" Jiraiya asked.

"Well you want me to use up all my energy so I'm forced to be more efficient and to try to draw this Kyuubi gunk," Naruto said. "Isn't creating kage bunshin and using them to sort of practice things using a lot of chakra?"

"Hmph," Jiraiya said. "That might be a good idea. Have them practice the water walking technique while you practice summoning frogs...not tadpoles...frogs."

"The last one had legs," Naruto insisted bitterly as his clones get together for a sparring session.

* * *

Hinata breathed heavily as she regarded her father through the haze of her teacher's genjutsu which was dampening her vision and forcing her to put more effort into noticing things.

"Release," Hiashi suggested and Kurenai dropped the illusion from where she stood.

Suddenly information came flooding through Hinata's eyes. For a moment it overwhelmed her and she had to grit her teeth and bite her lip to avoid falling back in a vertigo induced faint.

As she gathered herself again, the barrage of information growing less, or at least she was growing to be better able to tolerate it.

Once the obvious signs of Hinata's balance returning became visible to Hiashi, he turned toward Kurenai and indicated that she she should restart the genjutsu and Hinata's vision started to fade.

Kurenai shook her head and wiped the sweat off her brow before restarting the genjutsu. They'd been steadily increasing the level of the genjutsu for three weeks now. With the intensity she was currently using, Kurenai could have blinded Kakashi for twenty four hours.

Despite this, Hinata's vision was only severely fuzzy by her own report.

Hiashi moved in to the mat again and started sparring his daughter vigorously. Hinata was taking several painful looking blows, even without the chakra that normally enthuse them. However, her defense this time around was still stronger than it was in the previous spar.

Even with Kurenai's genjutsu getting strong each time, it was clear that Hinata was also growing in strength and capability.

Or at least her eyes were.

Kurenai winced for her student, but said nothing for the moment. Not while the sparring was going on.

* * *

Sasuke lay back breathing heavily in the midst of of the debris of the training field as Kakashi took it in, nodding.

"You're almost there," he said.

"You're teaching me a dangerous jutsu for fighting my comrade," Sasuke noted coolly as he sat up.

"I'm not teaching this for when you face Ryoko," Kakashi noted. "Think about the limits of this technique as it is, and try to imagine using it against her."

Sasuke frowned and considered that.

"She'd have to be practically blind and nailed down or else she would simply move aside and I'd pass right by," Sasuke noted.

"Hai," Kakashi said. "But against that Gaara..."

"This technique is perfect," Sasuke noted. "Though if I am to face Gaara, first I'd have to beat Ryoko and Naruto would have to lose either that Sound ninja or Gaara. Unless..."

Could there be a reason to face Gaara outside the tournament?

"Unless..." Kakashi asked idly.

"Never mind," Sasuke said, sharply. "How does this help me in my first match if it's not going to be able to catch her by surprise?"

"Endurance, for one," Kakashi said. "Speed is another. And then there is your other project. Anything coming of that?"

Kakashi eyed him closely as he asked the question. He already knew the answer of of course. Sasuke's basic chakra abilities had been slipping momentarily, before he spent a bit of extra time focusing on them and fixing the problem. The reason, of course, being that his chi was growing more active.

His sharingan showed him that much. There was no sign of the turmoil that was in that priestess, yet, and the activity was somewhat mild compared to what Ryoko had, much less Kodachi and Mokya.

Perhaps it would give a little extra edge however. Or at least a way to blunt Ryoko's edge.

After the tournament, he'd compare notes with Kodachi again. Assuming Orochimaru hadn't moved by then.

But that was too much to hope for.

* * *

"How does..." Sakura took a breath. "How does training like this make it easier...to deal with...you know?"

"Somehow," Inoichi said. "That pa...snake that we sealed in your mind taps into your subconscious mind. It makes use of things that you've witnessed and don't consciously understand yet. You chakra use becomes more efficient and you can use jutsu you otherwise couldn't."

"Yeah, but then...I'm a monster," Sakura said.

"So, best to be in a position where you don't need to use it often," Anko said. "Like I said, you aren't the only one that Orochimaru has twisted."

Sakura nodded, remembering what Anko had told her about the curse seal she had. The seal was supposed to push the inflicted more and more towards the pursuit of power and ambition: Orochimaru's path. In Anko's case it had receded after a long time of refusing to draw on its power.

The woman was still one of the most blood thirsty people Sakura had ever met. Her own blood, the blood of other people, it didn't matter, the spilling of blood fascinated the ninja to an extreme point.

As she raised a hand to her mouth and licked at a bleeding cut there, Sakura had to admit that her own interests were leading that way too. The very sight and smell of it attracted her attention immediately, and the taste was so sweet it sent shivers through her.

That almost scared her but for one thing. Anko, despite this tendency, never showed signs of wanting to kill people out of hand. She was an exuberant, friendly person.

Who just happened to like blood.

"Given some time," Inoichi said. "We'll find a way to help you deal with the snake itself. If you can get to where it recognizes friend and foe, then we'll start undoing parts of the seal until you no longer require someone else to release the first steps for you."

"If I get strong, why would I ever need it?" Sakura asked.

"Your subconscious is always going to get deeper," Inoichi noted. "Just be heavily aware, that letting the snake out is not a light matter. Even if it eventually recognizes friend and foe, you can lose yourself in the instincts and then it might be impossible to come back."

Sakura nodded nervously.

And she thought of something else.

She thought of the bruise on Sasuke's neck, in the same place Anko-sensei had indicated her seal was, should it become visible. If so...what was happening to Sasuke right now?

* * *

Ino clapped happily as the brace came off and she was given use of her hand again. Immediately, she gritted her teeth and held the injured hand gingerly.

"It isn't completely healed yet," the medical ninja admonished. "But it should be plenty ready for hand signs, and you have a week more in the hospital for the ribs."

"Hai, hai," Ino said.

"And no more stretches or calisthenics when no one is watching!" the man said. "I swear that Lee is a bad influence on the other ninja patients."

"How is Lee?" Ino asked.

The medical ninja remained silent as if he hadn't heard the question and Ino felt herself deflated.

"Oh," she said.

At least this meant that her father would be helping her with some new jutsu soon.

* * *

Shikamaru sat on his knees panting heavily and watching as Choji rolled to a stop at Asuma's direction.

"Well, you've stretched your endurance a good twenty or thirty percent," Asuma said. "Another week of this and you should be doing great for the tournament."

And maybe what comes after, Asuma thought to himself.

* * *

Kiba and Akamaru came to a stop and took a deep breath as they looked back over their shoulders to see the devastation done to the training ground behind them.

"All right!" Kiba called out. "We've just about got it."

"Now all you have to do is be able to sustain for long enough to be useful in a fight," Hana said.

"This is so much cooler than Oneechan's training," Joseibi said. "All they do there is watch her run up and fall off trees and then throw stuff at her."

"What?" Kiba asked, panting.

"That's what they're doing," Joseibi said, shrugging.

"The tree climbing exercise?" Hana said. "In preparation for the Chunin exams. That seems pretty basic."

"Speaking of basic," Tsume said. "While my son and Akamaru are resting, kit, I think it's time we start training you in the jutsu we've been preparing you for."

"Hmm?" Joseibi asked.

* * *

Neji stood in the middle of a circle of discarded weaponry as Tenten stood to the side catching her breath.

"That's amazing, Neji!" she declared. "You've done it."

He glanced around, surely this was overkill for dealing with his cousin. However, that wasn't the issue.

The issue was to make a point. That things were the way they were and that was all.

"That is a good warm up," he said. "Let's get on with this."

"Warm-up," Tenten noted, surprised. "Are you channeling Lee and Guy-sensei?"

Her teammate turned to glare at her coolly and she shrugged.

"I was only kidding, sheesh," Tenten said, shaking her head.

* * *

Jiraiya looked down at Naruto where he'd collapsed in exhaustion after another day of training and failing to get anything more than a tiny frog that still had a tail.

He wasn't making the leap, not yet.

Frowning, Jiraiya cupped his chin as he leaned over the passed out kid.

"I had really hoped to avoid this," he muttered. "But just simulation isn't going to be enough. He's improving on taijutsu with the clones, and some of his ninjutsu. But if he's going to grab the kyuubi's chakras, he is going to need a real risk."

* * *

Ryoko dodged aside as a kunai came close to slashing into her shoulder, immediately after she folded back and sprang into a handstand away from another thrown weapon. Rolling to her feet, she took in a breath and projected a trace of Yang to destroy Kodachi's incoming flow of Yin.

Immediately, Ryoko was in stance again and moved to meet the next attack.

Ebisu considered matters as Kodachi went through the motions preparatory to her invisible attacks and Mokya moved to attack again. It seemed that if they got within five feet of Ryoko, that she could legitimately "see" them to an extent, but that she was becoming aware of attacks at fifteen feet distance.

"Wa...was that a real kunai?" Ryoko asked, despite the fact that she couldn't hear the answer at the moment.

They'd upgraded to real weaponry as her deflections and dodges had turned more reliable. She'd already been cut a couple of times, but for the most part she was still succeeding in avoiding being hit.

"Either we get serious and risk hurting her," Ebisu noted. "Or we'll need more people for the training to continue."

Kodachi nodded and started to step back, aware that Ryoko's eyesight and hearing were soon to come back.

"Ano..." Ryoko said loudly. "Ha...have we stopped again?"

"We have only a few more days left," Mokya said. "What shall we..."

Ryoko was groping around and reached down to find her bokken and pick it up. At which point, she swung it idly, disrupting her own connection of chi. She managed to unknowingly slash it right into a bee-hive nearby.

"Kendo?" Mokya asked as Ryoko shrieked and began to put forth a good showing of beginners mure no suzumebachi.

Ebisu and Mokya flinched as Ryoko frantically darted about to stun the bees before they could sting her, dropping her bokken to do so. However, it was clear that she wasn't quite up to that level yet and several bees did get through until Kodachi stepped forward and began systematically detecting the tiny traces of chi in the air around her student and stunning each bee.

In a matter of seconds, the bees were scattered about Kodchi and Ryoko. The Black Rose gestured and signed toward Mokya as she reached down to pick up the bokken.

Ryoko started to blink and rub at her ears as they started to return to full use and looked to see Kodachi holding her bokken.

"Mistress Kodachi would like to note that we only train in mure no suzumebachi with real hornets after the kachuu tenshin amaguriken has been mastered," Mokya said.

"Mure no...ano?" Ryoko repeated. "Swarm of hornets?"

"That is, essentially, what we have been training you in," Mokya said. "Along with the chi-senses. But, sense you insist on using the bokken, we'll spend the rest of this time teaching you how to use it...properly."

"What style have you used to this point?" Ebisu asked. "If you have used any at all."

"Hi...hiten mitsurugi ryu?" Ryoko said weakly. "Mumpo Jin...jinpu Ryuu?

Her three teachers stared at her blankly for several seconds.

"Have you ever heard of..." Ebisu turned to ask Kodachi and Mokya.

"Never," Mokya said as Kodachi shrugged.

Ryoko nervously moved toward where she kept her lunches and reached to grab a pair of manga and nervously handed them over toward Ebisu. Kodachi irritably gestured for someone to explain something verbally and Ebisu turned around, eye ticking.

"Manga," he said. "She's been copying manga swordfighting styles."

All three of the older warriors groaned.

"Su...sumimasen," Ryoko said, bowing. "B..but Father and Mother do not know the sword an..and Mother only let me learn if I learned to use the sw...sword."

"I guess we start from scratch then," Ebisu said, shaking his head. "We should at least be able to reach a point where it isn't in the way anymore."

* * *

Hinata stared at her hand in wonder where her two fingers had, just for a moment, trailed a line of chakra so condensed that it had sliced through the sleeve of her father's kimono.

Kurenai stepped forward, letting her genjutsu drop and looking at the damaged clothing along with Hiashi.

Hinata merely stood there looking aghast as she continued to consider how close she had just come to cutting into her father's wrists.

"Su...sumimasen," she said quickly.

"Okay," Kurenai said, looking toward Hinata. "I think Hiashi-sama, that it's time to start seeing what she can do without blinders on. There are only a couple of more days left."

"It would seem to be something we can agree on," Hiashi said, looking towards Hinata. "This is an application we have not seen before."

* * *

"I have to put up with a demon like you," Naruto said firmly to the beast behind the gate. "And I'm giving you lodging space, so the least you can do is pay rent."

The Kyuubi laughed loudly and cruelly in response.

"Put up with a demon?" it asked. "Tell me, do you even know how many demons you deal with on a daily basis? You seem rather friendly with demons, actually."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto demanded.

"You are surrounded by demons, brat," the Kyuubi said. "Maybe not as destructive as me, but demons still. Just waiting for the veneer to fall off and their true self to emerge. You too, it's just buried there, the real you. I can taste it even here."

"You're the only demon here, damn fox!" Naruto snapped. "Now are you going to help me or do we both die?"

"Hmm, you're right, of course, brat," the fox snickered. "And I will give you some of my chakras. A reward...for coming this far."

* * *

And then there was a giant frog to deal with, at least until he grew tired suddenly and fell into darkness.

* * *

"Ha, I've got you stumped don't I," a shrill female voice was declaring. "Finally, the feminine wisdom wins out over male..."

"Checkmate," a bored, yawning voice declared.

"Ehhhhh?" the female responded.

"You only got seven moves this time. Are you sure you know how to play?" the bored male voice asked.

Sitting up, Naruto blinked wearily until his vision cleared and he was looking at Shikamaru and Ino sitting across from each other over a shogi board.

"Again?" Ino asked.

Naruto notied that her head was still bandaged, though less so, and she was dressed in her normal clothing, with her normal reinforcing bandages underneath.

"What's going on," Naruto asked. "Where am I?"

"Oh, Naruto," Shikamaru said. "You're awake. I was beginning to wonder if you were dead there. I came to see Ino get released and they said you were here."

"Every time," Ino said, still staring at the shogi board.

"How long have I been here?" Naruto asked, tired.

"Hmm, the nurse said you've been here...three days," Shikamaru said.

"What?" Naruto demanded. "When's the tournament?"

"Tomorrow," Shikamaru said.

"Ehhh?" Naruto shouted, attracting Ino's attention finally. "Where's the Ero-Sennin? How am I supposed to train if he not here?"

Naruto was reaching out to grab Shikamaru and shaking him.

"How the heck should I know?" Shikamaru demanded, gripping Naruto's hands and pulling them away.

"Same Naruto as ever," Ino said shaking her head and smiling. "Good to see you're fine. There's been enough of us in here already."

Ino's right eye wasn't completely blue anymore, it was criss-crossed and splattered with brown lines, whirls and dots. Places that the iron in the blood had seemed down into the eye and caused a change in the melanin levels.

"Ino..." Naruto said. "Did you know that one of your eyes looks weird?"

The good humor on Ino's face disappeared as her eyebrow over the changed eye ticked and the smile turned strained.

Shikamaru took a step back as he recognized the warning signs that he'd formerly associated with Ino in conversation with Sakura.

"What did you say?" Ino asked. "Did you call my eye ugly?"

"No, but..." Naruto tried to say, also now noticing warning signs.

"Ino, you're ribs aren't completely healed yet," Shikamaru warned her.

"Tsh!" Ino said, standing up. "I could have gone home with my parents, but I chose to stay here and visit you with Shikamaru and for that you say I have an ugly eye? Fine, I'm going to see if Lee is awake and say bye to him, then I'm going home. I'll see you two at the tournament tomorrow if you're not cowards!"

And with that she turned about and stomped out of the room.

"Okay, that was scary," Naruto noted.

"We're not going to have two taboo subjects now, are we?" Shikamaru asked, eyes wide and intimidated. "How troublesome."

Shikamaru started to turn around to tell off Naruto for risking the wrath of a hard edged woman when they heard a shriek from the hallway.

For all that he'd just woken up from a three day coma, Naruto was up and out the door first, but Shikamaru was not far behind. Running for the source of the sound, they found Ino diving in between Gaara of the Sand and the bed Lee was sleeping soundly on.

Shikamaru idly considered that probably meant that the medical staff had managed to sedate him as he reached his shadow out to snag Gaara and interrupt him from completing a sand burial.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Naruto demanded as he stepped forward to land a punch on the boy.

Gaara's head rocked back, and much of the sand on the left side of his face cracked and fell to the floor.

"I was going to kill that boy," Gaara said. "She got in my way."

"Damn right I got in your way!" Ino said. "Didn't I tell you before that I'm protecting anybody I can? I'm not letting anybody get hurt anymore if can help it."

"I have yet to see how that makes you stronger," Gaara said coolly. "If you get in my way, I'll kill you."

"You bastard," Naruto growled stepping forward.

"Look, it's three to one here," Shikamaru said, putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder...and noticing that Gaara's hand did not move likewise. "And you might be strong, but we didn't show everything we can do at those preliminaries. So I'd suggest you just leave."

"I'll say it again," Gaara said. "If you get in my way, I'll kill you."

Shikamaru flinched as Naruto growled.

"He can just be so calm about it?" Shikamaru thought to himself.

"Why, you bastard," Naruto said, stepping forward.

"Gee, what a hothead," Shikamaru thought as he moved to restrain Naruto. "At least I can count on Ino to..."

"I'm not moving!" Ino declared loudly, forming her hands into particular hand sign. "Make one move toward anybody and I'll take over your body and make you dance naked and sandless up to the top of the Hokage monuments and release just after I jump you off the highest edge."

"Oh...right...newly discovered sense of ninja duty," Shikamaru thought grimmly to himself before calling out. "Would you two please stop provoking him, don't you see this guy has the strength of a monster?"

"I know," Ino said darkly. "He almost killed me before."

"I've got a real monster inside me," Naruto said, grinning. "I'm not going to die to someone like him."

Ino flinched and looked toward Naruto surprised.

"A monster, hmm?" Gaara said quietly with a smile. "Then you're the same as me."

Naruto felt his fury fall apart at those words.

"I was born by taking the life of the woman I would have called mother," Gaara continued darkly. "So that my father could bind the incarnation of sand to me and create the ultimate shinobi."

"Incarnation of sand?" Ino asked, looking between Naruto and Gaara.

"It is called Shukaku," Gaara explained. "The living spirit of a Sand Priest sealed within a kettle."

"A demon possession jutsu?" Shikamaru asked. "To go so far, they must have been nuts. Is that something a parent does for love?"

"Love?" Gaara repeated. "Hmm, don't judge me based on what you know. Do you know what family is to me? Pieces of meat bound to me by hatred and murderous intent."

"By sacrificing my mother's life," Gaara continued. "I became the masterpiece of the village and, as the Kazekage's son, I was taught the shinobi secrets and spoiled, allowed to do as I please. I thought this was love until...that incident."

The emotionless manner of Gaara seemed to fade into sadness for a moment.

"What, incident?" Ino asked.

The sadness disappeared to be replaced by a wide, crazed smile.

"From the time I was six years old," he declared. "My own father has tried to kill me more times than I could count!"

"What are you saying?" Shikamaru asked. "Didn't you just say that you were spoiled?"

"I was an experiment," Gaara declared. "And they decided it was an experiment that failed. Someone realized that the spirit inside made me emotionally disturbed and I was deemed too dangerous to live."

He took in a heavy breath as his bloodshot eyes opened wider for a moment.

"I'm treated politely only because they were afraid of me," Gaara said. "I am a piece of the past that they wish would disappear. So why do I exist? I thought about it but couldn't find an answer."

"What's he talking about?" Shikamaru asked as Naruto stared fixated.

"If you don't have a reason to exist, it's the same as being dead," Gaara said.

"I...I can understand," Naruto thought. "He's the same as me."

"I then came to this conclusion," Gaara said. "After suffering the fear of death and never knowing when an assassin would come for me. 'I exist to end other people's lives.' It is what they made me for, after all. By continually killing the assassins sent for me, I found the reason to keep living."

The smile turned calmer and more calculated.

"To fight for oneself," he said. "To love oneself. If you think that everyone exists so that you can have the experience of killing them, there is no better feeling in the world."

"I was alone," Naruto thought. "And I couldn't figure out why I was alive...but then I found my friends. He never had friends...he had to learn to experience life by killing people."

"As long as I can feel that joy of existing, I will never dis..."

"Does such a guy ex..." Naruto started to think.

Both Gaara's statement and Naruto's thought were stopped as the clear sound of a slap carried through the room and eyes turned to look toward Ino, standing directly in front of him.

"Way do you insist on getting in my way?" Gaara asked dully.

Naruto felt his shock start to fade back, and the fury wasn't coming back.

"You're wrong!" she said. "I know someone like you. Someone put something in her and she has...problems! But we're helping her, she isn't going to live like that! She's going to be happy and have a good life!"

"How long has she been like that?" Gaara asked. "Has she had long to feel lonely yet? Are your village elders experimenting to see how she'll turn out?"

Ino gritted her teeth and shook furiously.

"You too," Gaara said. "You'll try to love her and be her friend. You'll try and it won't matter, eventually...you'll fear her. And you'll hate her and then you'll try to kill her, and she will destroy you and learn the same truth."

Ino's mind drifted back toward Sakura snapping at Asume "I could hurt you!"

Naruto watched Ino looking uncertain and stepped forward.

"You heard her," Naruto said, stepping forward. "We wouldn't let any friend of ours suffer like you have! You got it!"

He looked back toward Ino slightly and gave her a nod which she returned quickly enough.

"I only suffer because you deny me my kill," Gaara said. "If you persist in doing so, then I will just kill you as well, and then I won't suffer any more."

"Tsh, you can't get rid of the loneliness by killing other people," Naruto snapped. "That just makes you more alone."

"You're a fool if you think so," Gaara said.

"Is everybody in this room crazy exept for me?" Shikamaru wondered.

In one moment, Gaara's sand flew up to flank him as Naruto and Ino both shifted into combat positions, Ino wincing in pain from her still injured ribs as she did so.

"Wait, wait," Shikamaru started to say as the three started to move towards each other.

"That's enough!" a loud voice declared and eyes turned toward the doorway to see Maito Guy standing there. "The finals are tomorrow, don't get angsty. Or do you want to stay here starting from today?"

Gaara reached up to grab his head as if he had a terrible headache and started to shuffle out the door.

"I will kill you all," he said. "Just wait."

After he left, Gai started to turn to speak to the Leaf genin, but Naruto spoke first.

"Ino," he whispered. "Were you talking about Sakura-chan?"

Ino flinched and then looked away. Shikamaru likewise turned embarrassed and uncertain.

"I see," Naruto said, lowering his head.

"What were you talking about?" Ino asked. "A monster in you."

Gai looked down at Naruto and folded his arms.

"You three should be moving along," he said gently, preventing the conversation from continuing. "You have shown the Power of your Youth this day and your loyalty to your comrades of Konoha, but Lee must get his rest, as should you Ino Yamanaka!"

The three young shinobi turned to look at him and gawk silently.

"Dork," Ino said after a long moment of silence.


	25. Commencement

Ninjas and civilians alike lined the streets as the palanquins and bodyguards traveled on their way down to the arena to fill the seats for the tournament that was coming.

The streets were full of anticipation and guesses as to what would be happen in each of the matches.

"Sasuke is matched against some unknown wandering child," someone noted. "We'll have to wait to see his full potential."

"But at least we can look forward to a match between two Hyugas," someone else noted.

"Tsh," another voice said. "Strong it maybe, but it isn't particularly interesting to watch."

"I'm betting we see a Uchiha and a Hyuga in the final match," a third said.

The pomp and circumstance was nearly overwhelming in its intensity and noise. Like a wave of pressure whipping out over the village and focusing down into the arena floor where ten young ninja stood and waited for the events to begin.

* * *

Anko was heading out toward the tournament, frowning as Sakura stayed back in her new room, working through a sudoku book and otherwise just moping. The special-jonin didn't like the idea of leaving her alone given the suggestions, but at least this was one of the first areas that would be evacuated in case of anything serious.

"Well, if she doesn't want to come out..." Anko muttered as she moved to open the door and found Ino Yamanaka on the other side just about to knock on the door.

"Oh, Anko-san," she said in surprise. "I was looking for Sakura, her parents...said she was here?"

"She's in the back, but I don't..." Anko started to say as Ino pushed in past her.

"Sakura-chan!" Ino called out, moving back into the building.

"Sheesh, what a pushy brat," Anko said with a smirk.

Then she noted that the Yamanaka girl was wearing two weapon's holsters. One on her leg and one at the base of her spine.

"Ino! What are you...," Sakura called out irritably as she was dragged along by the insistent blonde.

"You are not sitting her and sulking by yourself," Ino said in the tone of a demand. "While our friends and comrades are out fighting and maybe for their lives."

"Arg! You always want to push people around," Sakura snapped before continuing a bit softer. "Just let me stay here."

Anko watched Ino push another weapons holster, one of Sakura's for training, on Sakura and cross her arms.

"It isn't good for you to be alone," Ino insisted. "Right, Anko-san?"

"Well..."

"See, of course I'm right," Ino said.

"Listen, you pushy little brat," Anko said. "I can understand worrying about a friend, but I'm going to have to insist on a couple of things."

She took a breath as Sakura looked relieved.

"One, you don't interrupt me, or any other superior ranked ninja as long as I can see and hear you," Anko snapped. "Or I'll have Asuma tan your hide to the wall."

"Hai...Anko-san," Ino said, wincing.

"And two," Anko noted, looking again at Ino's gear. "When you're going to a civilian event, at least try to look like you're not expecting anything."

Sakura blinked and looked over the blond girl, noticing the two weapons holsters for once.

"Uh...heh," Ino said nervously.

"Give me a moment," Anko said. "I think I have some really old coats around here for you. And stay with me when we go through security or they'll take it all from you anyway. Kids. You don't know anything about operational preparation do you?"

Sakura blinked and considered that as she held the weapons holster in her hand. She'd never even thought of something happening at the exams. But she should have...what with that Orochimaru sneaking around.

Frowning, she buckled on the weapons holster and waited as Anko dragged out a pair of bedraggled, ages old trench coats about sized for her and Ino.

"Ewww," Ino said as she saw the rumpled, torn and slightly smelly trench coat.

"Should have gotten your own before coming here, brat," Anko snapped with a smirk.

* * *

"He'd better make a good showing," Tsume said. "It won't do for the Inuzuka clan to be overlooked here in the final rounds."

"He's got a bye in the first round," Hana said. "Then he'll probably be fighting Sasuke Uchiha. It's too bad that Joseibi-chan has classes right now."

"Oh well," the elder Inuzuka woman said. "I'm sure we'll be able to get it on video from somewhere."

Shino stood at the edges of the crowd, off to the side and watched down below casually, waiting to see what his fellow Konoha shinobi would bring to this fight.

Naruto stood with the other participants looking up at the stands that were all staring down at them. He glanced over toward Hinata and smiled at her.

"Isn't it great, Hinata-chan?" he asked. "They're all here to see us kick ass."

"H...hai, Naruto-kun," Hinata said nervously as she looked across towards her cousin

Looking over toward Ryoko, they saw the girl visibly shaking and knew that it was in an effort to contain her excitement and enthusiasm for the upcoming event rather than fear as it would have been with any other large public event.

The girl's eyes behind her glasses were practically sparkling like stars.

"I get to spar Uchiha-san," she sighed with a goofy smile.

Kiba looked over at Ryoko and tried to keep a confident smile on his face evem as he felt a semi growl starting to form in his throat. He glanced around to look for Sasuke, wanting to give the arrogant Uchiha a glare for some reason, but was annoyed to find that the eleventh participant hadn't yet showed up.

Other people did not have such pleasant attitudes.

Gaara held his normal bland expression as he stood next Temari, who was smirking and crossing her arms expectantly.

Dosu's one visible eye stared out widely as he hunched over in his characteristic creepy manner.

Thyme stood simply and paid attention mostly to nobody, save for looking over the woman around him in a manner that was not winning him any friends.

Neji did not deign to turn his head toward anybody, but merely held a bland expression as he waited for the festivities to begin.

* * *

The Hokage looked up from his aid to see the approaching Kazekage and broke off the discussion.

"Oh ho," the Hokage said. "Kazekage-dono. You must be tired from the journey."

"Not at all," the other man said behind his mask. "It is good that the event is here this time. While you're still young, the trip might have been too much for you. Perhaps it is time you decide on a the Fifth?"

"Ha, don't treat me like an old man," Hiruzen said. "I intend to do this for another five years. Well, let's get this started!"

* * *

The referee was a different person from before, he was a tall grim looking person chewing on a senbon needle. He conferred a little bit with a scarred man that Ryoko recognized as someone who usually was with the Hokage the few times she'd met him, and then he turned to address the crowd.

"One of the participants for the first match has not yet arrived," he declared. "So we're postponing that match until later and we will move on to the next match."

"Ano..." Ryoko said, blinking curiously. "B...but that's my match...Ano..."

Ryoko frowned and looked toward the ground, without losing her lady like posture, but still radiating the aura of a little girl who'd been promised a pony and given a toy.

"Tsh, there'll be plenty of chances for you later, kid," the referee said. "For now, Neji Hyuga and Hinata Hyuga remain here, the rest of you head for the waiting area."

* * *

"Sasuke Uchiha's match is postponed?" someone said. "Who was he supposed to fight?"

"Some girl," another said, pulling out his fight schedule. "Ryoko Saotome, a resident of Konoha. Some wandering ragamuffin apparently."

Nodoka hadn't been paying much attention to the proceedings until this point. Hadn't listened to the gossip or looked at her fight program or paid much attention to what was going on in the field below.

It didn't involve her family, so she was only being polite in accepting the invitation. As of yet, not her father, brothers had had much to say to her, only her brother-in-law had spoken to her, but that was fine with Nodoka.

She had been searching for her husband and daughters through intermediates for some time now, but reports on Genma had him nowhere near Konoha, and she hadn't given the specifics of who she was searching for other than her husband.

Her latter two children weren't matters for anybody else.

Now, however, she bent down to look into the arena closely and frowned as she found a familiar black haired child following the other genin out of the field.

"Might I borrow your glasses, Takeshi-san?" she asked her brother-in-law.

"Certainly." he said, passing them over to her.

Looking through, Nodoka frowned as she identified her daughter, three years older, participating in such a tournament like a common soldier or shinobi. When she'd given permission to train as was appropriate to the family, she hadn't intended her daughter to behave in such a way.

This was not the way a proper lady young should behave.

"Ah well," some next to them said. "These next two are both members of the Hyuga clan. This out to be an interesting fight."

Nodoka stood up and looked about.

"I have to see about something," she said coolly.

* * *

Kiba frowned as he walked off the arena floor, staring over at Neji as he passed by Hinata.

"Are you sure about this?" Kiba asked. "That guy is always looking at you like he wants to kill you. I'd back out of this if I were you."

"I need to do this, Kiba-kun," Hinata said.

"That's right," Naruto said. "Hinata will do fine, she's been practicing all month just like the rest of us. I'm sure she's got some awesome jutsu to show."

"You should listen to the Inuzuka, Hinata," Neji said coldly before turning toward Naruto. "This one is the source of your ill-found confidence, and he will be responsible for the shortening of your life if you persist in this foolishness."

Naruto frowned and stepped forward of Hinata as the girl flinched at Neji's words.

"Why you..." Naruto started to say before the referee reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Now, now," he said. "A few words of encouragement are fine, but give them from the waiting area, all right?"

"Hmph," Naruto said. "Hinata! Show him what you can do and get it done quickly."

Ryoko nodded and looked between Hinata and Neji.

"Hyuga-sama," she said. "Hyuga-san. Have a good match."

The referee watched them heading up the stairs to the participant waiting area, Naruto still yelling out a mix of encouragement for Hinata and condemnation for Neji.

"You understand the rules?" the ref asked. "This goes until one of you admits defeat or dead or I call it."

Hinata and Neji both nodded.

Both triggered their byakugan and took in the other.

Neji frowned as he saw that Hinata was resolute in her desire to face him. She was as blind reality as all that then?

"Fine," he said with a smile. "It'll be that much more satisfactory when I show you what reality truly is."

"Neji-ni-san," Hinata said, moving into stance resolutely. "I know."

The referee stepped back and nodded, watching as the two gathered themselves together, standing no more than a few feet apart.

And then flashed into a high speed exchange of blows.

* * *

To the ignorant it looked merely like they were involved in a normal exchange. But to many of the lords and experienced shinobi, the emotion involved was clear as was both the skill and power.

"Pay attention, Hanabi," Hiashi said. "The Hyuga blood runs thick through your cousin's veins."

He paused in consideration to what he'd seen of Hinata's training the past month.

"I am watching, father," the little girl said.

"Nor is your sister's potential weak," he said. "All that remains is to see if her will and determination is likewise."

"Father?" she said, a bit surprised to hear that from him.

* * *

Hinata twisted her arm out of the way as she saw the fingers of Neji's hand dipping in to catch one of the tenketsu points and shut off her access to chakra. In the same motion, she jabbed forward with her own fingers to reach for one Neji's own points.

Neji grimaced bitterly and twisted into his own block of her attack.

"She can see the tenketsu points now?" he thought to himself as they flashed through another exchange of blocks and aborted strikes. "Before she was only capable of keirakurei strikes."

Hinata nearly struck his tenketsu as he jabbed forward, taking advantage of the opening he made when he went on the attack. His own response to her counter was swift and only barely escaped. And that only because of an innate defensiveness in Hinata's attitude that her honestly resolute attitude couldn't completely erase.

He had the advantage in their exchange, but it was no longer overwhelming. There was now the faint chance that she'd place a blow before he could, and that would change things.

Neji took a step off to reconsider the way things stood, and immediately found himself leaping over a legsweep, followed by a keirakurei palm strike as he tried to break contact with Hinata.

Leaping back into the air a short distance, Hinata followed him quickly along the ground and struck out swiftly as he came down to the ground, immediately following up with an elbow in attempt to place him off balance.

The pursuit continued flowing from tenketsu strike to keirakurei to kicks and elbows, pressing him with an impressive level of skill. Such that he was finding it difficult to either break off or attack.

Suddenly, his eyes widened and he recalled Naruto's fight with Shino.

* * *

_"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said. "Ryoko-chan spars with her a lot too, nights I think." _

_"That's what I thought," Shino said. "Her particular st..hmph..style is to invite pursuit and trip up the attacker until they're off balance and she presses the attack on the unbalanced foe." _

_Naruto paused and considered that thoughtfully. _

_"Is that what she does?" he said before shaking his head and continuing. "Whatever, why does it matter?" _

_"It matters because both you and Hinata have become skilled in pressing an attack, and individuals lean towards performing what they are most skilled at," Shino explained.

* * *

_

Further he recalled the Saotome girl's style of fighting and understood why Hinata had followed his progress on the ground instead of heading into the air. That Saotome would obliterate anything that followed off the ground, so Hinata had learned to stay on the ground and wait for the inevitable return when the leaper would be vulnerable.

He grimaced on realizing that he'd inadvertently fallen into a pattern that Hinata had practiced dealing with for the past three years.

The elder Hyuga watched for her to press the pursuit again and took that moment to turn the momentum back on her. There were no safe openings against her tenketsu points, not when she could see him aiming for them. That left him a lot of openings, however.

He waited for that moment when Hinata was locked into her action and between the points that she could change her mind, and stepped inside her strike to carry his elbow through to her face.

Hinata gasped in surprise as she felt her head snapped back and her feet throwing out from beneath her. She had slammed into the ground when she felt Neji pressing his advantage.

She only just barely rolled out of the way, deflecting her body by the inches necessary to avoid having her tenketsu closed by her cousin, and came to her feet eyeing Neji as he circled around her cautiously.

"You've improved your eyes," he said coolly.

"H..hai," Hinata said, breathing heavily.

"But your stamina and strength are still not yet where they need to be to face me," Neji said. "The end result of this is a foregone conclusion."

"Neji-ni-san," she said, stopping as she took in a deep breath and continuing quietly. "This is a losing fight."

"If you understand that," Neji asked. "Then why do you keep fighting? Give up and we can finish this farce."

"That's still losing," Hinata said.

"So you plan to fight until you can find a way to win then?" Neji asked as they circled around each other.

"Hai," Hinata said. "I can't lose here."

"This is the arrogance of the Main House," he said sharply. "Of course you can't back down in public and embarrass the house. You'd rather die than embarrass them then?"

"That's not it at all!" Hinata declared. "This isn't about the Houses!"

Neji frowned and straightened for a moment, noting the amount of emotion his cousin was showing. She looked like she was about to say something more, but hesitated.

In that moment, while her mind was fixed elsewhere, Neji moved in to attack.

Hinata moved into step around the attack almost immediately, and if she'd had more speed and experience her strike would have landed.

"Was all that a feint?" he wondered and his mind cast back again to the preliminaries and the Saotome girls false apologies and stuttering. "I see, she also picked up on this? Your tricks won't help you in the long run, Hinata-sama! This match will still end the way it always was meant to."

"I can't let that happen!" Hinata shouted as she pressed in on Neji.

Neji stepped aside and found himself focusing entirely on defense as Hinata abandoned pacing for a moment in an effort to place as many attacks as she could in a small space of time.

He could easily take advantage of the situation to place his own attack, but not without possibly taking blows as well.

It would not do to sustain a victory here only to lose ability for the next fight, but still, she was pressing far faster than he had expected her capable of. Patience and she would wear out, her stamina was better than he remembered but still not the equivalent of his.

But he had been wanting an excuse to use his new technique against his cousin anyway. This couldn't take a byakugan user by surprise but it wouldn't hardly matter anyway.

Hinata's eyes widened as she saw the chakra welling up in her cousin's coils and pouring out of his tenketsu points. She'd seen her father perform this technique once or twice herself and knew what was coming.

She paused and took her own stance in preparation.

* * *

"Is he using that here?" Tenten asked. "Shouldn't he save that for a real opponent? She's putting up a good fight, but that's just overkill against Hinata."

* * *

"Hakkesho Kaiten!"

As the chakra rolled out of Neji, he saw and felt it being torn to shreds not even a foot out of his body.

Pulling out of his spin, he stood and looked across at his cousin as she stood straight and facing him, her arms slowing down as she came into ready stance and trailing a heavily concentrated line of sharp chakra.

* * *

"W..wow," Ryoko said quietly as she held onto the hand rail, just shy of losing her normal formal demeanor. "Hyuga-san and Hyuga-sama are so amazing."

* * *

"Neji's defense...was beaten?" Tenten said in shock.

* * *

Hanabi stared down at her sister, the same sister who hadn't been able to defeat her in a spare for years.

"Wh...what is that?" Hanabi asked her father.

* * *

"What...is this?" he asked outloud, staring in shock at her as he stood in a half-circular crater.

"Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō," Hinata said.

"Of course," he said. "The Main House would know how to counter it's own defense."

"No," Hinata said. "This is my jutsu."

"Your jutsu," Neji responded in surprise.

* * *

"By dimming her senses, we forced her to concentrate harder and harder on smaller points and building up from there," Kurenai noted with pride. "Until she was trailing razors of chakra from her hands. Such sharply concentrated chakra can cut through the Hakkesho Kaiten with ease."

She crossed her arms and glanced toward where Hiashi was watching.

"This is the sort of jutsu that would not easily be found by someone born with natural talent," she said. "This only comes out of a near obsessive focus and long effort. The sort of thing made by one who can't walk the same paths as easily as those around them."

Kurenai frowned momentarily afterward.

"But, this fight should be over," Kurenai said. "Neji was close enough that Hinata could have struck him as well. If she waited for the Kaiten to fall apart she could have blunted the blades to avoid seriously hurting Neji."

* * *

"Right now," Hiashi thought. "Neji is analyzing it and realizing its weaknesses. And it is imperfect yet, too inefficient. Hinata might not be able to do it again before resting."

He leaned forward, frowning.

"Is she falling back on her old ways?" he wondered.

* * *

Neji looked down at his clothes and the ground and noted several lines cut into the ground around him and into his clothes.

"Is this the mercy of the Main House," he asked sneeringly. "Why didn't you finish the fight?"

"I...I don't want to lose," Hinata said.

"What are you talking about?" Neji asked.

"I defeat you," Hinata said in a soft voice that never the less seemed to carry. "Main House beats Branch House. Destiny can't be escaped."

Neji frowned in confusion as Hinata panted.

"Then do you mean to let me win?" Neji asked, humiliated. "Do you think then you can prove that the Main House can lose, by not fighting all out?"

"No," Hinata said, "Then the Elite beats the Loser. You're proven right. Destiny can't be escaped."

"So you're saying that I'm right then?" Neji asked.

"No," Hinata said. "I defeat me, the Loser beats the Elite. Destiny is broken. You defeat me, and the Branch House beats the Main House. Destiny is broken. Nobody is proven right, nobody is proven wrong. The fighting goes on. The hate. The shame. All of it."

Neji frowned and gauged his cousin's chakra and tried to guess whether she could perform that jutsu again. Keep her talking to see whether or not she was trying to lure him into another trap.

"I could ask to receive the Caged Bird mark," Hinata said panting.

Neji flinched and stopped to stare at Hinata with that.

* * *

Hiashi and Hanabi gasped outloud as Hinata said that, her voice carrying to the crowds by what devices allowed such conversation to be heard.

"She's even considered that?" Hiashi said.

* * *

"But that is just selfish," she said. "That is only hiding. Everyone would say I was admitting I was weak. It'd solve nothing. And anyway, the Main House isn't given that option, is it?"

Neji frowned at that admission.

"You want the hate between the families to end?" Neji asked. "That is impossible. All you will do is fail."

"Hai," Hinata said. "I might fail, and fail, and fail. But, I won't lose. Like Naruto-kun. I'll stand up again and I'll try again. And I will never lose. I'll never let the hate just stay untouched. I might fail but I'll be a proud failure!"

"And that nonsense is your reason you didn't finish me?" Neji asked. "You can't win just by not losing. How do you plan to win?"

"That also comes from Naruto-kun, and Ryoko-chan," Hinata said, smiling and straightening up her stance.

She firmed her shoulders, letting the fatigue fade away briefly.

"I'm going to fight, Neji-ni-san," she said. "I'm going to fight until there is no more Main House or Branch House. I'm going to fight until there is no Hyuga. I'm going to fight until there is no Loser and no Elite. I'm going to fight until it's just Neji-ni-san and me."

"Let's see how long you can keep that up," Neji said coolly.

"Neji-ni-san," Hinata said, smiling. "Is that a challenge? Because I most definitely will not lose."

* * *

Beyond the walls of the village, the normal patrols were replaced with elite Anbu squads moving with incredible silence and speed through the trees, watching for appearance of anything out of the ordinary.

Kabuto glanced back over his shoulder toward where he'd hidden the corpse of the Anbu he'd replaced and smirked.

It didn't matter how stealthy or skilled the Anbu were as long as they were following the routes presented in their orders. Their source on the movements of Konoha was very good. And not all the Anbu were trying as hard as they probably should have been.

"Well, I have a hard job ahead of me," he said. "I hope Naruto-kun can at least entertain me a little bit at first."

* * *

Caper was expected to be in the Arena watching his partner Thyme, but he had wandered off instead, tapping his feet anxiously for the rest of the raiding party to arrive. According to that sorcerer these shinobi should have something starting up soon.

Then he hoped to get a chance to teach that young pup a lesson. He glanced toward the arena for a moment and then back toward the walls of the village.

"Where is that sorcerer Kashou?" he wondered.

"You're a long way from home," a voice said at his side.

He whipped his head around to see a woman leaning against the wall there with short brown hair tied up with a red ribbon.

"How did she get so close to me without me..." he wondered. "Umisenken."

"No," the woman said and he realized he'd spoken the last aloud. "The Senken are inheritance Ryu carried by the Kumon and the Saotome. I'm a Tendo...by adoption at least."

Caper started to form an idea of striking the woman in front of him. He'd made a decision and formed an intent and in that instant, the woman casually slammed the back of her hand into his chest.

"Your chi screams out loud with your purpose," she said as he clutched at his chest and dropped to his knees, coughing up blood.

"How did you...?" he stopped realizing his question had already been answered.

"So you were talking about Kinnosuke Kashou," she said conversationally.

* * *

"What's she talking about?" Naruto asked. "This Caged Bird mark?"

He looked around at the other fighters around him, who merely shrugged in response and frowned down at the scene below.

"I'd heard the Branch House and Main House of Hyuga had issues," Shikamaru noted, "but this is insane."

Neji dodged aside, deflecting one of Hinata's attacks and giving a return attack of his own. He felt his hand graze across her stomach and nodded as she wined in pain from the chakra slashing into her network.

Gritting her teeth, Hinata slammed her palm into Neji's thigh, missing the knee. She rolled forward and came to a weak stand before trying to press the attack again, this time with a kick directed at her cousin's head.

She managed to clip his skull and winced as she felt a jyuken strike to her leg just a moment later. Her own hit had apparently put it off its mark, but her leg still came down painfully and she was now moving with a limp.

Of course, so was Neji.

* * *

The Hokage was silent as the two Hyuga's tore into each other. This had been building for a long time. It was only lucky that one of the pair had Hinata's temperment.

"If they were both like that Neji," he said, shaking his head.

* * *

Neji watched as she still came in. She was getting the worse of every exchange, but still kept coming. And she was still pressing the attack and driving the pace, though he had to admit that he was letting her.

Despite this, she'd had at least two more times that she could have ended the fight with her victory. Places where he had been overconfident and underestimated how much stamina she still had.

Each time, she had taken the opportunity in a way that didn't end the fight, but made him well aware that she knew she could have.

He frowned further, knowing that while it had only been idiocy that opened those chances for her, he hadn't been able to push any decisive advantage over her. Even now where fatigue and collected slight injuries were leaving it difficult for her to stand if she wasn't moving.

"Does she hate me that much?" Neji wondered. "Why not, don't I? But she said she wanted the hatred to stop."

Frustrated and certain that she was too tire to repeat her jutsu from before, as she came in this time, he twisted into the Hakkeshou Kaiten.

Hinata gasped in surprise and barely stepped into the start of a Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō. The majority of Neji's chakra was again cut to ribbons, but he saw it as some pushed through and slammed Hinata up into the air off of her feet.

In the same moment, her focus and attention was ruined and one of her chakra razors twisted off track.

* * *

"Neji!" Tenten shouted, standing up from her seat as she saw the blood spilled across the arena.

* * *

Hinata rolled up to her feet and blinked wearily, looking for where Neji's attack would come from. Instead, she found Neji still standing where he had been.

She was confused and half focused on taking breaths, but after a moment, she saw the growing red stain coming down from Neji's shoulder where he was gripping hard with his other hand.

A line had been torn in his jacket from his stomach up to his shoulder, and the blood was flowing out. It must have been a more or less shallow cut, or else he wouldn't be alive right now.

"Neji-ni-san!" Hinata gasped, taking a step forward and stopping.

She took in her hands and watched them shaking.

Neji watched her and frowned, confused himself for a moment. With his byakugan he could easily read the emotions and they were more like what he expected from Hinata: fear and shame.

But up to now she had been resolute. So what had changed to bring those...

He glanced toward his shoulder where she had opened him up at the end of her shugohakke rokujūyon shō.

"Was that...for me?" he wondered oddly.

Hinata looked up from her hands and glanced toward the referee, her hand started to go up.

"I forfeit," Neji said coolly, though breathing hoarsely.

Several eyes turned towards him then, including Hinata's.

"Neji-ni-san," Hinata said quietly. "I didn't mean..."

"Are you sure about this?" the referee asked.

"With this wound I have no choice," Neji said, noting Hinata wince.

"All right," the referee said. "The winner is Hinata Hyuga then."

The medics flowed out of the doors to come to Neji's side then, supporting him as the blood flow started to take his consciousness away.

Hinata nervously watched and moved to his side.

"Will he be all right?" Hinata asked.

"Is that all your determination lasts?" Neji asked.

"Ano?" his cousin responded looking toward him.

"You said you'd fight until it was just you and me," Neji said. "Is this as far as you'll go...or is this as far as you plan to let me go?"

"Neji-ni-san," Hinata said.

"Rest for your next fight, Hinata-sama," Neji said. "Ours is not over. Until there is no Main House or Branch House. Until it is just you and me, correct?"

Hinata blinked and nodded, a small smile working onto her face.

"Hai, Neji-ni-san," she said as the medical ninja took him away.

Amongst the cheers of the crowd she moved to the stairs and limped her way up to where the others were. Kiba and Naruto were rushing down them to meet here. At the top of the stairs, she could see Ryoko as well, moving down at a worried pace.

"Oi, Hinata are you okay?" Kiba asked as he came down the stairs.

"Hai," Hinata said wearily.

Naruto moved right past where Kiba stopped and moved toward Hinata's side.

"You showed that jerk didn't you?" he asked in a tone of voice that told Hinata that he had recognized what she was doing at least.

"Hai, Naruto-kun," Hinata said with a smile.

"She's dead on her feet!" Kiba noted. "Congratulate her later."

"I'm okay, Kiba-kun," Hinata said and she wearily shifted to lean on Naruto's close shoulders.

Quickly, she shifted into hugging him as she let herself give in to the fatigue and fall asleep, not faint, leaning on Naruto's shoulder.

"Ah, ah, Hinata-chan?" he asked as the girl's head rested in the crook of his neck.

Ryoko stopped a bit above Kiba and smiled briefly.

"Kawaii," she said.


	26. Uneven

"That ended more or less better than it could have," one of the chunin in the stands said.

"Hai," his partner said. "There's a lot of potential there, but there's too much emotion right now."

"Prolonging a personal matter in the middle of a mission," the other agreed. "That could lead to unnecessary death in a mission. And at the end she was about to forfeit but she should have known that such an injury was likely. Neji could have controlled that if he had remained patient, but with a bug up his rear and having to prove himself, he escalated the situation."

"And he was being too sloppy and emotional," the first noted. "If their skills were more equal, he would have lost that fight long ago."

"On the other hand," his friend said. "She set herself a goal and analyzed the end results and set a mission plan."

"And that Neji could have let her forfeit and then forfeited the next match," the other noted. "Instead he stepped aside so that she would continue. Really, there's too much conflicting information here. It's hard to tell whether the good or bad points are flukes or not."

"Well, she has at least one more fight to carry out then," came the last comment on the matter.

* * *

The stall keeper looked down toward the girl in front of him, she was familiar from somewhere. Wait, wasn't she supposed to be one of the chunin examiners.

"Ano..." she said. "Ca...can I h..have one of those th...throwaway cameras?"

She was hidden by a crowd of people seeking food and other things as a tall woman with the same red-hair moved through the hallway behind her.

* * *

The Hokage looked out across toward the stands and saw Hiashi Hyuga and his youngest daughter stepping away from the stands and moving down toward the inner rooms of the arena. Probably to see how Neji was doing.

"So much emotion in the first match," he said.

"They say that family squabbles are the most vicious," the Kazekage noted dryly. "Do they not?"

"Yes, they do," the Hokage said. "But the family that weathers them will be the strongest."

"Of course," the Kazekage noted. "After all, they have left off the unnecessary weak links, haven't they?"

The Hokage glanced over at him with a frown.

"And how is your family doing?" he asked.

"Surprisingly well," the man answered. "Though I had expected all three of my children to be in these finals."

"Your Kankuro was merely unlucky is all," Hiruzen said. "He pulled someone that was uniquely armed against his tactics."

"So it would seem," the Kazekage said. "And I am very eager to see how Gaara stands up in his fights. Or your Sasuke Uchiha."

The Hokage frowned slightly and looked across toward his peer with consideration and then back down toward the field.

"It looks like your about to get your chance, at least with Gaara," the Hokage said.

* * *

"Ah!" Anko gasped. "It looks like we missed a good fight. Tsh, damn the guards. Don't they know who I am, slowing us down for clearance. Who knew that the Hyuga could get so hot blooded?"

"Sumimasen, it's my fault," Sakura said as they came down to a trio of empty seats.

"Tsh, that was all me, Sakura-chan," Anko said. "Old news that creeps up occasionally."

Ino stopped on the top of the stairs, frozen in the middle of a continued effort to make her borrowed trench coat presentable, and looked down toward the arena.

"Ino," Sakura said, hesitantly. "What's the matter?"

"That's him," Ino said, narrowing her eyes as she looked down toward the arena.

"Ehh," Anko said, following the blonde's look and seeing who was stepping out onto the field. "Yeah, that's the guy you fought."

Sakura straightened and glanced down toward the arena, eyes narrowing under her dark glasses as she tightened her fist.

"Not him," Ino said seriously. "He's an idiot. The other one."

Sakura looked up, confused at Ino's lack of concern for the man that apparently had put her into the hospital.

"Gaara of the Sand," Ino said. "This match will be bloody."

"Really?" Anko asked. "He's the one that fought Rock Lee, isn't he?"

"Hai," Ino said.

Anko looked down a little eagerly at that. Sakura had to admit, if the other was the one that had hurt Ino, that she felt a little eager to see him bleed as well.

* * *

Thyme frowned as he looked about the stands, looking for Kinnosuke or Caper and practically ignoring his coming opponent despite the power he'd seen the boy display before.

He didn't find either of the other chi adepts he was looking for, but glancing up he found, sitting like a beacon in the flows of the chi around, Kodachi. The Queen who would have a say in how the Dynasty did things.

"Hey," the voice of the boy in front of him rang out quietly. "Your opponent is here."

Thyme turned about to face him.

"You stopped me from putting that girl in her place before," Thyme said recalling his fight with Ino.

"I still have business with her," Gaara said. "We have disagreements over the reason to exist that I wish to finish with her."

"Reason to exist?" Thyme asked.

"It is something little scum like you couldn't understand," Gaara said.

The referee chewed on his senbon as he watched the exchange cautiously.

He was supposed to be watching for signs of who Otogakure had allied with, and what the chi adepts intended to accomplish here in Konoha. Neither of these two struck him as the time to be behind anything. They were too focused on their own goals and waiting for orders.

"All right," he said. "You know the rules, let's get on with this."

Gaara ignored the man, focused on Thyme for a moment and then looking up around the stands before finding a blonde girl amongst the seats.

* * *

"Is he looking at me?" Ino wondered briefly, flinching as Gaara's eyes met hers.

Then she growled and leaned forward.

"Hey! Stare all you want!" she shouted down to the arena. "You're still a selfish, spoiled brat of psychopathic sand-monkey!"

Sakura and Anko blinked as they turned to face Ino who threw herself back down into her seat angrily crossing her arms.

* * *

Temari arched an eyebrow and looked up toward the stands and let her jaw drop.

"That girl, again?" she said. "She got off lucky enough last time. At least there's an entire stadium away from him this time. To get away from telling off Gaara once is one thing, but I don't think anybody could do it twice."

Kiba overheard her and looked up toward the stands where Ino was sitting.

"Oh, Ino...yeah, she's a special case of idiot," Kiba said.

"You. Have. No. Idea," Shikamaru said to them.

"Hey, Naruto," Kiba said. "You're going to be fighting whoever wins here, aren't y...oh, never mind, you're still busy."

"Sssh," Naruto said insistently, a look of near terror on his face as he regarded the form in his lap.

Naruto had earlier lifted up Hinata and carried her back up to the stands and sat down...neglecting to note that he was bringing her down onto his lap. Now, he was just about trapped under the still sleeping Hyuga girl.

"He has to beat me before he gets to the next round," Dosu thought to himself as he turned about to watch the match.

* * *

Gaara blinked slowly.

"She still gets in my face from that far away?" he wondered outloud before turning to face Thyme. "I'm ready."

Thyme pushed forward with more speed than most untrained citizens could reach, but nothing so extreme as what that Lee fellow had shown. Gaara's sand rushed up easily to get in the way of the punch.

Gaara was mildly impressed as some of his sand was knocked loose, but it didn't matter, the badger-man wasn't moving near fast enough.

A lashing tendril of sand reached up to wrap around Thyme's neck and jerked backwards, holding tight around the man's throat and throwing him across the arena ground roughly.

Thyme stood up bitterly and looked across to see his opponent still standing there and coolly staring forward.

Bitterly he stood up and charged forward again. He wasn't even fifteen feet away when the sand lashed outward again, slamming into his side and pushing him off of his feet. The rough sand continue to lash in at him, scraping across his chi-hardened skin, but not doing the damage Gaara would normally have expected.

"Chakra wielding whelp," Thyme growled getting to his feet again and charging forward.

Gaara finally reached out with his sand and it reached out to grab about Thyme's chest.

"Sabaku Kyu," Gaara said bitterly as the sand slowed Thyme's progress forward.

The sand crept from Thyme's chest towards his left hand and upwards around the right-side of the man's head.

"Eight Horse Stomp!" Thyme shouted slamming his feet into the ground and sending the tremor out from his position.

Gaara nodded as the sand flowed out underneath him, keeping his posture straight and erect as the tremor ceased. He glanced around briefly and found the annoying blonde girl again in the stands as Thyme stared in shock.

"Sabaku Soso," he said idly.

* * *

Ino grimaced as the man that savagely beaten her was equally savagely dispatched in a few seconds of fighting.

"Someone has an admirer," Anko noted idly as she took note of the attacks Gaara had employed and compared them to what had happened to Ino at the hands of the the same one who was now getting the beating.

"Yeah, he's started to kill me three times now," Ino said idly.

"Really?" Sakura said, looking down at Gaara angrily.

"Right part forward, Sakura," Anko warned as she watched fight.

"You look like you're about to ask for popcorn," Sakura thought to herself. "And you want to tell me to watch myself."

* * *

Kiba picked up an oddly familiar scent and looked over his shoulder to see a tall woman maybe in her fifties push in out of the other halls for a moment and walk into the fighter's balcony before stepping away.

"That smells like..."

Temari had been focused on Gaara like everyone else...until she noted Kiba's attention had wavered. In case it was something important, she followed his look and caught site of the woman she'd had spoken with a few days before.

"Oh, it's that strange lady," she said.

"You know her?" Kiba asked.

"I met her once, she was talking about her family," she said. "Holding the family son until she was sure her daughter wouldn't need it or something. Must be involved in some sort of family ritual, she talked about rehearsals. What kind of ritual involves a sword?"

"Hari-Kiri," Kiba said without turning to look at Temari.

"Tsh, who makes their own daughter rehearse that?" the sand kunoichi asked. though she unwillingly thought of her own messed up family.

She shrugged and turned her attention back to Gaara, watching to see if her brother could keep control of himself.

Thyme dropped to the ground in the wake of the crushing sand and remained there, bleeding from several injuries and breathing heavily.

Gaara frowned as he noted that the man failed to die immediately from the attack, but flailed around weakly a moment before passing out. Strangely enough, he didn't feel the need to press forward and end the man's life.

He felt an odd sort...vindication actually.

The sand flowed back into Gaara's gourd as the young man stared, watching the referee expectantly.

"Winner is Gaara," the referee said coolly.

At which point the young man turned about and walked towards the waiting area.

* * *

Naruto looked up at the sound of a click and found Ryoko standing over him and Hinata with a camera in her hand.

"Uh...Ryoko-chan," Naruto said, feeling a bit embarrassed. "What are you doing?"

"Hyuga-san w..will want a picture, Uzumaki-san," Ryoko explained.

Kiba watched and frowned as he considered the woman he had seen earlier and wondered if he should tell Ryoko about her.

* * *

Hiashi sat outside the infirmary holding an old scroll in his hands as he sat across from his youngest daughter as they waited for word that Neji had woken up.

"Will he be okay, Father?" Hanabi asked coolly.

Most would have assumed that the little girl was emotionless, but Hiashi could see the tiny signs of worry on her face despite the stone mask she'd been raised to assume.

"The medical staff assured us of this," he said.

"Why are we here instead of watching the fights, Father?" Hanabi asked.

"I need to speak to your cousin, Hanabi," he said. "It is a personal matter of duty that I have to attend to."

"Duty to the Branch House?" Hanabi asked.

"Duty to my brother's child," Hiashi said.

Hanabi blinked at that, moderately confused but didn't ask any further question.

"Hinata almost embarrassed us," Hanabi said quietly.

"No, I understand her choice," Hiashi said, thinking back to his own attempt to prevent his brother from sacrificing himself.

"Neji-ni-san said that she has taken a liking to that ruffian she was talking about," Hanabi said.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Hiashi said.

He pointed toward the red spirals that decorated the walls in regular intervals.

"That is the symbol of the Uzumaki clan," he said.

"But that is part of the Konoha uniform," Hanabi noted.

"The Uzumaki were a branch of the Senju clan," Hiashi explained. "And there was a long friendship and alliance between Konoha and the Uzumaki clan as a result, though they lived in another village."

"Why haven't I heard of this before?" Hanabi asked.

"The Uzumaki clan was all but destroyed years ago," Hiashi said. "They were feared for their incredible stamina and longevity, as well as the fuinjutsu they practiced and enemies moved to kill them with only a few escaping. Naruto's mother was in the village at the time, like others of her family, she performed an important task for the village, but unfortunately, she died with the Yondaime, fighting the Kyubi."

"What task is that, Father?" Hanabi asked.

"That I cannot tell you yet," Hiashi said.

"Is that Naruto only so uncouth because his family all died?" Hanabi asked.

"Not quite," Hiashi said. "I remember his mother from the Academy. She was a loud-mouthed hyper aggressive tomboy who never seemed to be willing to sit still for any real length of time. I think she once dislocated my shoulder when she went to give me a comradely pat on the back. The few times her relatives visited showed them to be similar."

He took a deep breath and shook his head.

"Eventually, something embarrassing happens to anybody who spends much time around an Uzumaki," Hiashi said. "We can hope that it won't be too public or too soon, however."

* * *

The referee looked over at Dosu and then up toward the balcony.

"What the hell is he doing?" he asked, chewing on his senbon.

The sound ninja was predictably quiet on the issue. Obviously he didn't care if Naruto would be disqualified. That would just get him closer to "worthier" foes.

"Yo!" the referee called out. "What's going on up there?"

"Just a moment," the Inuzuka boy called back down with an obviously restrained snickering. "He's trying to get free?"

"Get free?" the referee asked, a bit confused.

* * *

"What the hell is up with Naruto?" Ino asked. "Shouldn't he be down there?"

Sakura stood up and started to walk down to the edge of the seating they were in to look over and see what was up in the fighter balcony.

Squinting a bit, she pulled down her sunglasses, still not used to seeing through them, and tried to ignore the gasp at from someone else trying to see nearby.

Anko sauntered on down next to her then and leaned to look over Sakura's shoulder as Ino showed up at the edge as well. All three eventually caught sight of Naruto and had a mix of reactions.

"How kawaii," Ino said in as sweet a tone as her shrill voice was capable of.

"That Naruto..." Sakura said grimly, shaking her fist. "Of all the things...in public even."

"Looks like that match goes to the Hyuga," Anko said snickering.

"Hey, Ino," Chojii called out as he started moving down the stairs. "What's up, shouldn't there be a fight happening?"

* * *

The two chunin stepped out of their seats to look over into the fighter balcony like most of the rest of the people in the stands.

One of the two, with a bandage over his face smiled broadly.

"Oh, so that's how the Hyuga celebrate victory, then?" he said.

"Be a bit more polite," his partner noted, though trying to keep his own snickers controlled.

* * *

The Hokage had stood up and leaned forward to look down into the fighter balconies and was now giving a slight smile with a chuckle. Though he glanced back towards the Kazekage, who looked only annoyed with the delay, and his humor faded.

* * *

"What the hell is going on?" the referee wondered as he listened to sound around him.

There was enough twittering sound of enough laughter and snickering to make him think that Kakashi was in the area with an active chidori. Mixed with that were a few whoops, feminine gushing or outrage and just general chattering.

Shaking his head, he leaped up to the fighter's balcony, more than a little irritated.

"What the hell is taking you so long Uzumaki," he demanded. "We're wai..."

He took in the situation and immediately smacked his face into his palm and started laughing quietly.

* * *

Nodoka wondered briefly what was attracting so much attention, but didn't let it distract her from her search. Ryoko hadn't been with the other fighters, but she had to be near by, waiting for her fight to come.

* * *

Hiashi felt a sudden chill flow through him and an intense desire not to activate his byakugan just at that moment. He thought about his previous statement.

* * *

"She won't let go," Naruto said with exaggerated quietness, indicating the Hyuga girl who currently was seated on his lap and holding on to him as if he were an oversized teddy bear.

The other fighters were standing around him with varying expressions on their faces. The Nara looked a bit irritated, as did both Sand shinobi. The Inuzuka was just shy of laughing uproariously and the Saotome girl was taking pictures with a disposable camera, at least until she noticed all the attention.

"Ano..." she said, nervously.

The referee stepped forward and leaned down to gently tap Hinata on the shoulder.

"Hey, Hyuuga," he said quietly.

Hinata started to stir then, and looked up to find the teasing expression of the referee filling several degrees of her vision.

"Yeah, I know you've only had a couple minutes since your match," he said.

"Ano?" Hinata said as she slowly became aware of how she was holding Naruto.

"But the rest of us are waiting for your boyfriend here," the referee said.

Both Hinata and Naruto turned beet red at that comment and Hinata slowly let go and shuffled to the side.

"Su...sumimasen," Hinata said quietly.

Naruto stood up, scratching the back of his head, and exchanging a brief look with Hinata.

"Umm, good luck, Naruto-kun," she said.

"Umm, thank you, Hinata-chan," Naruto said hesitantly.

"Right, cuddling later," the referee noted. "We've got a couple thousand people waiting on you."

The referee leaped down to the arena, snickering.

Naruto laughed hesitantly, still blushing heavily red as he moved down to his match.

Hinata fumbled, pushing her fingers together and resisting the urge to activate her byakugan. She leaned over toward her teammate Kiba and whispered.

"D...did many people see us?" she asked.

"I got pictures, Hyuuga-san!" Ryoko declared.

"Err...At least you haven't fainted?" Kiba said.

* * *

"He called me Hinata-chan's boyfriend," Naruto muttered. "I hope Hinata-chan isn't mad at me. She sounded really upset. And after all that talking about me in front of everyone."

The referee watched him approaching with a teasing smile as he kept muttering.

"So, you ready kid?" he asked.

Naruto blinked and looked up.

"Oh! Yeah," Naruto said. "Let's go."

"This is my opponent?" Dosu wondered laughing himself. "How ridiculous this is, you should have just stayed where you were until they disqualified you."

"Hmm, we'll see about that," Naruto said, getting into his normal frame of mind.

Staying where he was hadn't sounded too bad, though.

"Then let's get this started," Dosu declared.

Naruto eyed the man's gauntlet, remembering what this guy had pulled against Choji in the preliminaries. Sticking that into thing into Choji's human boulder form and ringing it or something.

Then there was that lecture about sound through the human body.

He didn't really know how that jutsu worked.

But he had a way around that now.

As Dosu charged forward, Naruto leaped back performing the hand signs for the kage bunshin as he did so. Instantly, a cloud of smoke erupted out and clearing to reveal five separate Narutos spreading out and drawing a kunai.

"Five?" Dosu said. "He can do more than that. Does he just feel that this is all he's going to need? Or has he put any clones out in hiding?"

The Sound ninja shifted forward to slash his gauntlet out at the first Naruto to come in on him and immediately, the image of the orange clad ninja burst into a cloud of smoke.

Dosu immediately turned his attention toward the other four Narutos as they tossed out their kunais and then charged forward with a second kunai.

The Sound ninja snorted in annoyance as he used his gauntlet to deflect the kunai and then moved to meet the four Narutos, eyes still looking for where the hidden clones were.

It was decidedly easy to intercept the orange-haired ninja's kunais with his own metal gauntlet. The clang of metal on metal rang throughout, though it was difficult for him to find openings to actually use the gauntlet offensively.

Still he found opportunities and when he did, the clones dispersed. Until, finally, there was only one left and he lashed out again with his gauntlet, only to hear a with of useless air.

"Heh, about time," the last Naruto said.

"What?" Dosu wondered, looking down at his gauntlet and noticing the sizeable collection of dents.

He thought back to how easy it had been to deflect each of the incoming attacks and his eye widened in realization that his weapon had been under attack the whole time.

And then Naruto lashed out with his fist, holding the kunai within it, and Dosu, in his shock, couldn't successfully block or dodge it.

A few moments later he was careening across the arena to land in an unconscious lump.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki," the referee said.

"All right!" Naruto shouted. "That's right!"

"Now you can go back up to your girlfriend," the referee said, snickering and drawing a blush and a wince from Naruto.

"If Hinata-chan hears that," he thought. "She'll be mad, definitely...would she punch me like Sakura-chan? Or would she do something else?"

He was on the verge of nonsensical muttering when he reached the balcony again and was interrupted in his thoughts.

"Congratulations, Naruto-kun," Hinata said, shyly.

"Thanks, Hinata-chan," Naruto said. "Though it wasn't awesome like with your fight. But that Dosu guy was just a freak."

* * *

"Shikamaru Nara against Temari of the Sand," the referee called out.

"It's here already?" Shikamaru said. "Why couldn't you take longer Naruto? How troublesome."

"Are you coming or should I assume that you're going to chicken out?" Temari asked with a hard smile as she unfolded her fan and rode it down into the arena.

"She's making a big deal about this," Shikamaru muttered as moved toward the edge of the railing.

"All right, well good luck, Shikamaru," Kiba said idly, giving his former classmate a firm clap on the back.

"Right! Go out there and kick her ass," Naruto added, eager to escape feelings of embarrassment at the moment.

He put in his own slap on the back.

"Ano..." Ryoko said hesitantly. "Is not that...dangerous?"

"Naruto-kun, you should be..." Hinata started to say about the same time, "...careful."

Both girls finished talking after Shikamaru was propelled just about headfirst into the arena.

"Tch," Shikmaru said from where he landed. "Those guys."

Temari looked on in irritation as her opponent simply lay where he fell, seemingly ignoring all the shouting from the surrounding arena.

"What the hell is with this guy?" she asked the referee who merely shrugged. "Hey you! If you don't get over here, then I'm coming over there. Are you coming or not?"

"What hard-edged woman," Shikamaru grumbled noiselessly as he narrowed his eyes and took in Temari's stance as he withdrew a pair of kunai. "She's almost as bad as Ino. Could almost be sisters. Tsh, I shouldn't consider such a troublesome thing."

"All right," she shouted. "Here I come!"

Temari charged forward and slammed her fan down into where Shikamaru was lying, only to find her fan had slammed down into empty dirt.

"All in all, I wasn't too interested in this to begin with," Shikamaru said from above Temari where he stood on the two kunai he'd embedded to the wall above. "But I can't go losing to a woman, so I'd better get involved."

Temari narrowed her eyes at the sexist comment and swung her fan out to send a slashing wave of air.

* * *

"Did you see that?" Ino asked. "He jumped down into the arena all on his own, he's like super fired up here!"

"Looked more like Kiba and Naruto pushed him," Choji said idly.

"No, no," Ino said. "He's going to beat her with one of his sneaky strategies, just watch."

She stood up and took a deep breath then.

"Go! Shikamaru! Hit her with a 16 hit combo! Go! Go!" Ino shouted.

* * *

Away in town, at the academy, Iruko paused in his work and looked out the window toward the arena.

"They should be about half way through with the first rounds by now," he said, tapping his fingers as he looked out at the sky.

"Hinata has that cousin of hers, Neji," he said with a worried tone. "And if Naruto wins his first match, he'll be faced either with that Gaara or Thyme, both of whom are vicious and strong."

He shook his head and returned to his work then.

"At least Shikamaru will probably bow out before things get too dangerous," he said, shaking his head.

* * *

Temari sat outside her line and watched where Shikamaru was sitting.

"That was close," she said. "He almost got me there."

Her opponent was sitting in the shadow of the wall looking out toward her with a calculating look on his face.

"You use the shadows, don't you?" she called out. "I was pretty sure I saw something like that in the preliminaries, but I didn't realize you'd be able to stretch your shadow."

She ran through her calculations, looking down at the shadow confidently. Twelve meters, that was where she was safe.

"Tsh, she reacted quicker than I thought she would," Shikamaru said to himself.

* * *

Kankuro watched from the stands, separate from his siblings and feeling just that bit relieved that Gaara was well away from him for the moment.

He had every confidence in his sister though, she was better at ranged combat like this than she was close in. There was no way this lazy shrimp was going to get the better of her.

Then he happened to look up into the sky.

"Temari! Above you!" he shouted out.

Temari barely dodged away from the shadow as it pulled out of the shadow of the parachute coming down.

"Don't think I'm going to let you get away!" Shikamaru called out.

Temari, eyes on the shadow chasing her down, fled away, trying to increase her distance away from both the walls and the shadow chasing her.

"This kid is good," she thought as she finally came to a stop. "But, I've got his number now. That was a one time trick with the parachute, he doesn't have anything else up his sleeve."

She smirked again and readied her fan and stared at the shadow trying to reach out for her.

"This fight is..." Temari stopped as her arm froze half way up toward the gesture she'd planned to give them. "What happened to my body?"

"Ahh, Shadow Possession jutsu is a success, finally," Shikamaru said with a smirk.

"What the hell?" Temari demanded. "I'm out of your range and your shadow is right there in front of me!"

She pointed to the shivering, reaching blackness in front of her.

"I think I'll give you a hint," Shikamaru smiled and turned his head to give Temari the chance to do likewise and see a second shadow tendril reaching out from the shadow of the walls and slashing in behind her.

"A second shadow?" she wondered in shock as the first shadow pulled itself back. "Coming out of the shadow behind me."

She gasped in realization.

"Do you see now?" Shikamaru asked.

"You didn't stretch your farthest! Ever this entire time?" she declared suddenly.

"That's right, I kept shaving some off how far I could go even as the shadows got longer," Shikamaru noted.

Temari looked forward where the shadow that had chased her had been.

"It was a distraction," she said. "The one in front of me, all to maneuver me somewhere that the second shadow get in behind me without being noticed."

"Everything was a test or feint from the beginning," Kurenai realized, talking to Asuma. "He tested her reaction speed to know that his shadow couldn't keep up with her and that he'd have to attack her from behind, then he set that up."

Asuma nodded proudly.

"He is what he is," the man said, blowing out a ring of smoke.

Shikamaru walked to the center of the ring, with Temari mimicking his motions despite her attempted resistance to the technique. A helpless look was on Temari's face as she walked out to face her opponent.

Once there, Shikamaru rose up his hand to the sky, took a big breath and...

"I give up," he said to the rousing sound of total disbelief from the stadium's stands.

"What the hell!" a distant, feminine shriek rang out. "What are you doing down there, Shikamaru!"

"What are you doing? Is this some sort of sexist crap again?" Temari demanded narrowly.

"No, no," Shikamaru said. "I'm done for now. I don't have enough chakra to finish the fight."

As if to accentuate his point, the shadow trapping Temari separated from her shadow and returned to Shikamaru's.

"It's too troublesome to continue from here," Shikamaru explained again with a yawn and a shrug.

Jaw hanging up and eyes wide, Temari simply shook her head in shock as she tried to puzzle out how to handle this situation.


	27. Battle

"Good," Iruka said in a friendly tone. "That's the end of the day's lessons. The Chunin exam finals should still be running right now if anybody else is interested in attending?"

"All right!" Konohamaru shouted. "I can't wait to see Naruto-ni-san take on that Sasuke!"

"No, I'm not sure that's who's paired up," Iruka said, shaking his head.

"I might as well go, too," Joseibi said, yawning. "Uennechan should be fighting."

"Uennechan," one of the students next to her repeated.

"I call my sister that sometimes," Joseibi said, shrugging. "Because she's devious."

"I'm not sure the grammar is right on that," Iruka said with a laugh.

"Eh, so?" Joseibi asked.

* * *

"Nodoka Saotome?" a man's voice said in casual surprise. "What a coincidence."

Nodoka stopped in her traveling through the stands to turn and see Kinnosuke Kashou standing there in a shaded corner beside one of the stands. Looking about she frowned and proceeded to walk over to him.

"Here I was planning to send word they are here," he said. "And you're already here. Have you hired others besides me for this task?"

"They? Is my husband here as well?" she asked.

"I was referring to your other daughter, actually," the man said reproachfully. "Genma is nowhere to be found."

"Oh, yes, of course," she noted. "Something must have happened to him then, or else he would not have allowed this to happen."

"Of course not," Kinnosuke said. "I do have another bit of news, however."

"Oh? What might that be?" Nodoka asked impatiently.

"You are apparently a grandmother," Kinnosuke said. "Akane has had three children in the last ten years."

Nodoka straightened and turned in the general direction of the land of tea with a wistful appearance. And Kinnosuke could almost see the process as Nodoka's efforts in maintaining the Saotome name shifted away from her oldest daughter and back to her son.

"I think I can handle this from here, Kashou-san," she said. "I'll arrange to make your final payment soon."

"I am curious what your family would think of you hiring me," he said idly.

"Unfortunately, Nabiki-chan was unavailable," Nodoka noted.

"I believe you're aware that I am responsible for that," the sorcerer noted.

"I am not concerned with the matters between you and the Tendos," Nodoka said casually.

"Now, I think you'll want to head to the balcony to speak to your daughter," Kinnosuke said. "Her fight is next on the docket. Though this one seems to be taking some time."

He glanced out towards the arena where Shikamaru and Temari were currently dueling.

* * *

Ryoko watched the fight below with interest, recognizing the intensity involved even if it was a slow building match. It was too far out for her to see the way the chi interplayed, but she could feel and see reverbations of it all the way up here.

Then her attention was drawn away from the match below as she felt a line of attention and dangerous intent threading from behind her. All of it chillingly familiar.

Slowly, she turned around and looked to the entrance of the fighter's balcony to see her mother standing there in the doorway, a severe look on her face as she beckoned for Ryoko to follow her.

Swallowing nervously, Ryoko walked away from the balcony as if she was leaving the world behind her and heading into the void.

She was already out of the area before the wind shifted and brought Kiba's attention to the return of Nodoka's scent.

He looked around briefly a cursed himself for losing attention.

"Did anybody see where Ryoko went?" he asked, glancing about at the others in the balcony.

Gaara merely stared back while Hinata and Naruto, standing close together with matching nervous looks, blinked and started to look concerned.

"I thought I saw her walk back into the halls," Hinata said. "Maybe she had to use the restroom?"

* * *

Kodachi sat up straight as she felt, barely, someone sitting down behind her. The chi was familiar, though not someone she had spent much time around. At her side, Mokya seemed unaware of their new company.

"Kodachi-sama," a polite woman's voice said behind her. "Mokya-chan. It's good to see you. Most everybody thinks the both of you are dead, you realize."

Mokya sat straight up and turned to look back toward the woman sitting behind her. Kodachi did likewise, and Kurumi frowned as she took in the long hair that the other woman let cover her face.

"Mistress Kurumi," Mokya said. "How did you...?"

"I followed a scent," Kurumi said. "Somewhat a Musky one. No loud declarations and laughs, Kodachi-sama? This is unlike you."

Kodachi bowed slightly and then raised one hand to part the hair from around her scarred face briefly. Kurumi's eyes widened and she sat back.

"The Musk?" she asked grimly.

"Hai, Mistress Kurumi," Mokya said. "They have been holding Mistress Kodachi and her son as hostages."

"To keep Herb in line," Kurumi said, frowning. "Tch, should have looked harder into that. Mistress? Kodachi?"

Kodachi had an embarrassed look to her as she tried to gesture in explanation.

"She has corrected me on the term of address several times," Mokya said. "I have told her, that she is my Mistress regardless."

Kurumi smirked with a bit of relieved humor.

"I see," she said. "You've been teaching a new student?"

Kodachi nodded and reached for a notebook to start writing.

"Hai, Ryoko Saotome," Mokya said as her mistress was writing. "We think her father is an imposter Genma."

Kodachi shook her head vigorously.

"Mistress?" Mokya asked.

The woman held up a hand and pushed backwards, over her shoulder.

"Oh," Mokya said, nodding. "Thought, past tense. When did you change your mind, Mistress?"

Kodachi directed her face toward both Kurumi and Mokya, crumpled the paper in her hand and started working on a new one.

"I think we'll continue this later, Kodachi-sama," Kurumi said, clearly aware she was the authority despite the honorific she chose to use with Kodachi. "I'm going to go pay a visit to your student."

* * *

Ryoko and Nodoka hadn't gone far, just into the hallway that connected to the stairs heading down to the field below, when Ryoko stopped.

"I...I can't..."

"Speak properly," Nodoka said, stopping where she was and turning about.

"H..hai," Ryoko said. "I can not go, Mother."

Nodoka frowned and turned about freeing the bundle on her back and uncovering it to reveal a long, well-made katana.

Ryoko instantly winced and balled up her fists, looking down and away from her mother's eyes.

"We need to go," Nodoka said, and she pulled the first inch of the sword loose with a click.

Immediately, as if following a program, Ryoko dropped down into seiza and bent her head. The sword continued to draw with the slow scraping sound of steel scratching across wood.

"I...I have made promises," Ryoko explained weakly. "I have a duty...

"You have an older duty to your family," Nodoka reminded her in a sweet tone of voice. "Is your honor so compromised?"

There was a clatter and Ryoko flinched before looking and seeing the wakizashi landing in front of her. Smoothly, despite the obvious extent of her emotion, she picked it up.

The steel continued to scrape slowly on wood and Ryoko curiously noted that she wasn't feeling the same intense fear she usually associated with that sound.

"Oh," she thought to herself. "Imouto-chan is safe. That is right. What a curious thought to have now."

She pulled the wakizashi partially free with a flinch and then hesitated to do more.

"I must insist that you stop this now and come with me now, Ryoko-chan," Nodoka added as she continued to pull the sword out of the scabbard.

Ryoko sat in seiza, holding the wakizashi and thinking back.

* * *

_A young Ryoko, younger than Joseibi was in the present, sat in the pit breathing heavily as the wolf's unconscious body shuddered and collapsed to the floor to join the other assorted predators that surrounded her. _

_The wolf, a few snakes, some wild dogs, a couple of simple mechanical traps, several other animals. She'd been faced with death at least fourteen times in the past two hours...and at the time she hadn't had words to describe how it felt... _

_It felt wonderful, to test herself over and over and over. The first animal had scared her briefly, but she quickly fell into the habits of her training and reacted easily enough to defeat the animal with some minor injuries. _

_She had to have more of that and they gave it to her. _

_"Has she achieved the technique?" her mother asked from the edge of the pit. _

_"The tome that Tendo girl got us says there should be some sort of flash or energy," her father had grumbled. _

_"Ryoko-chan," her mother had called out. _

_Ryoko winced, interrupted in the process of trying to pull the unconscious wolf to the side where he wouldn't get any further hurt when the next challenge came. _

_"Hai, mother?" Ryoko said, nervously, looking up. _

_"You need to try harder, Ryoko-chan," Nodoka said. "You must learn this technique so that you may put this skittishness behind you. This technique is supposed to help you be more brave." _

_"Sumimasen," Ryoko said weakly. "I don't..." _

_"Do not," Nodoka correct. _

_"Hai, sumimasen," Ryoko said, bowing. "I do not feel...very afraid." _

_"You have performed the necessary meditations?" she asked. _

_"Hai," Ryoko said. "All day yesterday, Mother." _

_"Perhaps we're giving her too much break between fights?" Genma said. "The technique insists the cure for this is to increase the unbearable pressure of the fear until the mind learns to deal with it." _

_Nodoka nodded and reached for the bundle at her side before tossing down a wakizashi to her dark-haired daughter. Ryoko winced and looked down at the wakizashi. _

_"I have allowed this study of fighting in the hope that it would treat your appalling lack of assertiveness," Nodoka said. "If you can not learn this technique then you shall be hopeless and we shall have to move on to your sister. Is that understood?" _

_"Imouto-chan?" Ryoko asked. "But..." _

_"If you cannot perform this technique properly by the time I finish drawing the family sword," Nodoka said. "Then you must take the remaining option for cleansing your shame. Do you understand?" _

_"Hai," Ryoko said. _

_"That's laying it on a bit thick," Genma whispered to Nodoka with an arched eyebrow. _

_"Release the remaining challenges," Nodoka said, ignoring her husband. "All of them." _

_Ryoko couldn't clearly remember what she'd fought then, or if she'd managed to only knock them unconscious like with the wolf and such. All she could remember was the continuing sound of steel scraping slowly on wood. _

_It continued for she didn't know how long, forever? She had a child's concept of time when it happened, and it made it hard to set the specifics now. _

_All she knew was that if she didn't get this Kishu-Osore technique down before that sword was drawn...then Joseibi would be the one to be trained. _

_She didn't particularly care about her own fate, if it was her duty to die for her family, she was proud to do it. Mother had already explained that well enough to her. _

_And she supposed it should be considered an honor for Joseibi to take her place. But she couldn't imagine her toddler younger sister going through any of the training or education her parents put her through. _

_She supposed that made her a bad older sister, but she couldn't help it. _

_The sound of steel scraping on wood continued, and the image of Joseibi doing these same things grew clearer. _

_And Ryoko reached the point where a mind should break under the strain. Had she not performed the training meditations prior to this, most likely she would have ended up only a catatonic wreck. _

_Instead, she incinerated the contents of the pit in a flash of orange-chakra flames carrying virulent sickening chi. _

_Ryoko lay in the middle of it, panting and burned head to toe from the burst. _

_Her mind had broken and in the same instant, through preparation and a force of will determined, not to survive, but to protect her sister, she had rebuilt it. _

_She had started stuttering not long after. Nodoka had been thoroughly disappointed, but had consented that the technique had been learned at least. _

_It was the last time she interfered in the specifics of Ryoko's martial training.

* * *

_

The sound of the sword drawing out of the scabbard was there, the threat to herself was there. But she was simply regretful that she wouldn't get to finish anything as her hand started to pull the wakizashi free in pace with her mother's sword.

But there was no danger to Joseibi from Nodoka anymore.

The true trigger for her Kishu-Osore was not present.

"You truly feel this strongly," Nodoka asked, in a sweet conversational tone.

Both short and long sword continued to draw.

"I c...can n...not leave now," Ryoko said.

"Then I suppose this is what must be," Nodoka said.

Ryoko took a deep breath and realized that at least her failures to appease her mother were over.

The swords left their sheaths as Nodoka raised hers...

...and a kunai stripped it from her hand.

Ryoko's head snapped up and she looked to see the family sword clattering along the short hallway.

"What the hell is going on here!" a voice shouted angrily.

Ryoko turned to see Kiba, Naruto and Hinata coming down the hallway looking a combination of worried and furious. Instantly she was on her feet and moving in a flash to intercept first Naruto and then Kiba from advancing on her mother.

Hinata hung back as both the boys were rebuffed and Ryoko stood there ready, wakizashi in hand, face looking terrified.

And her eyes were flaming orange behind her glasses.

"Who are you to interfere here, this is a family matter," Nodoka insisted.

"Family?" Naruto said. "You're about to kill my friend! Ryoko what are you doing here?"

"She is...is n..not trying to kill me," Ryoko protested. "She is my second!"

"Like hell," Kiba said. "She's still trying to kill you, Ryoko-chan, she's just making you do it for her. She stinks of it."

"What are you talking about," Naruto asked.

Hinata gasped as she figured it out.

"Seppuku?" she reasoned. "Ryoko-chan, why were you about to do commit that?"

"Perform!" Ryoko snapped, face still terrified as she tried to figure out how to get through this without either hurting her friends or her mother.

The orange fires started appearing briefly along her body in places.

"She has placed herself in a position where her personal obligations are in conflict with her family obligations," Nodoka explained. "Her honor must be cleansed."

"You mean she has to kill herself?" Naruto asked. "What kind of stupid idea is that?"

Kiba started to come around to one side, trying to flank Ryoko. The dark-haired girl saw the motion and shifted her position slightly.

"It is n...not stupid!" Ryoko said. "I...I do not want to be a harm to my family."

"It's stupid," Naruto said. "What's going to happen if you do this? Huh?"

"My honor will be cleansed," Ryoko said.

"And then everybody will think you're the coward who killed herself rather than fight Sasuke," Naruto returned.

"You haven't beaten me yet either," Kiba said. "I'm waiting for you to beat Sasuke so we can have a rematch. We've waiting three matches for Sasuke to get here, are you going to let your mother drag you away because he's coming for the fourth match."

"But..." Ryoko said, and the orange fires were clearly visible as a glow outlining her form brightly as her wants conflicted with her perceived responsibilities. "I..can't..."

Nodoka swallowed nervously and started to step away from her daughter, remembering the first and only time she'd seen those fires burning.

"What is going on?" Naruto asked quietly. "I thought that fire only happened when she was scared."

"Do you want to do this?" Hinata asked quietly.

"No...bu..but," Ryoko said weakly, and then stepping aside to continue to place herself between her friends and her mother.

"Who's going to take care of Joseibi-chan, huh?" Kiba asked. "How much trouble will she get in without you to tell her to do things?"

Ryoko started to hesitate, lowering her arms briefly.

"I can't let you hurt my mother," she said quickly and got into stance again.

The orange fires flared higher as she did so, and Hinata swallowed as she saw what sort of damage was being done to Ryoko with the fires as they were.

"We're not worried about her!" Kiba shouted. "We're worried about you, just come back with us to wait for Shikamaru to finish and that's all."

"That lady doesn't look like she's a problem anyway," Naruto noted.

"Ryoko-chan, you are worth something to us," Hinata said. "Remember?"

"This is a obligation she has to family," Nodoka insisted. "It is not for her to decide whether or not..."

"Fuki!" Naruto called out.

"Huh?" Ryoko asked, blinking and looking toward her friend.

"Isn't that what you said Kodachi-sensei taught you at the beginning of your training this month?" Naruto asked.

* * *

"So what did you train in all month?" Kiba asked. "New secret moves?"

"Heh," Naruto said. "Just you wait and see."

"I'm supposed to leave mine a surprise as well," Hinata said.

"Kodachi-sensei and Ebisu-sensei..." Ryoko started.

"Closet perv?" Naruto asked.

"Closet...Ano..." Ryoko said, blinking. "We...We started with the vi..virtues of school."

"Oh?" Hinata said. "Like the Will of Fire? What virtues were they?"

* * *

"Yeah, didn't they say you didn't have to do anything?" Kiba asked. "Something like that?"

"H...hai," Ryoko said nervously, the flames started to die down slightly. "But..."

"Do you want to do this?" Hinata asked. "Aren't we worth anything to you?"

"H..hai," Ryoko said. "You are my friends...but..."

"No buts," Naruto said. "You kill yourself and it hurts us. It hurts Joseibi, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, Kodachi-sensei, Mokya. Everybody! Do you want that?"

"No," Ryoko said, slumping and letting the orange fires fade away from her.

"All right," Kiba said, relieved and stepping forward to take the wakizashi away from her. "Let's go back and wait for Shikamaru's fight to be over."

"H..hai," Ryoko said with a slight, tired smile.

"Then you are no longer a..." Nodoka started to declare.

Everyone had turned to look at Nodoka with a glare, moving inbetween her and Ryoko. The dark-haired girl was cringing and her eyes had returned to orange as Nodoka started to speak.

"You can't make that declaration," a voice noted. "You're not the Saotome family head."

All eyes turned to look at the woman walking in past them.

"Grandmaster Ranma Saotome, her brother," the woman said, nodding her head toward Ryoko. "Is the head of the clan now. You never were."

"Kurumi-ch..." Nodoka started to say in surprise.

"No, Nodoka, Tendo-sama," she insisted.

"Umm...who are you?" Naruto asked.

"The Mistress of the Redeemed School, the leader of those of the Chikara virtue," Kurumi said. "The Wandering Master. The Eyes and Ears of the Redeemed School. Kurumi Tendo. Age thirty two. Marital status single. Blood type O. My favorite food is 'yes'. My favorite thing is fighting."

She threw her head back slightly and crossed her arms as she continued the introductory rant.

"Ryoko Saotome against Sasuke Uchiha!" a loud voice declared, cutting off conversation.

"I'll be talking to you later," she said. "For now, I think you have a challenge to attend to."

"H..hai," Ryoko said, smiling as she looked toward the end of the hallway.

"I'm going to be having a talk with your mother then," Kurumi said.

"Are you going..." Ryoko started to ask.

"I'm not going to hurt her," Kurumi promised, though it sounded like she most definitely wanted to. "So I'd like it if you all were to go watch Ryoko's fight now? I might need someone to relate to me the early parts."

"Right," Hinata said hesitantly. "Good luck, Ryoko-chan."

"Yeah, go beat Sasuke-teme's ass," Naruto said, ignoring Nodoka.

"I'm expecting to see you in my match," Kiba added, though he glared straight at Nodoka rather than ignoring her.

Ryoko politely bowed toward the apparent mistress of her school and then her own mother, who responded by looking away, and then walked out of the hallway with her bokken.

The pressure seemed to fade completely as she headed down toward the arena floor.

* * *

At the dark end of the hallway, Gaara listened to the whole scene from start to end frowning.

"Why fight for the existence of someone else so hard?" he wondered.

* * *

Temari and Shikamaru glanced up toward the fighter's balcony as they were both irritably leaving the arena.

"The hell?" Temari said as she noted the the balcony was empty. "Where is everybody?"

"Looks like they must have gotten bored with the fight," Shikamaru said idly.

"Tsh, that would be your fault for drawing it out so long," Temari said.

"Hey, I needed the extra time to be able to effectively split my shadow in two," Shikamaru said with a shrug.

"We're going to have to do this fight again sometime," Temari said irritably.

"Are you two going to leave the arena anytime soon?" the referee asked.

* * *

Okay, I was going to hold this scene until AFTER Ryoko fought Sasuke...but then I noted the parallels between Ranma's pre-Jusenkyo duel with Ryouga...I couldn't help but threaten a darker variation of the "wait three and leave on the fourth" set-up.

also, this is a bit shorter than the other chapters, but feel it needs to be on its own.


	28. Inspiration

Kurumi waited until the kids were gone before turning back toward Nodoka and the small trace of frivolity she'd still be showing vanished away as she looked Nodoka in the eye and took her measure.

The other woman was arranging her clothing to return to a dignified appearance and giving Kurumi a dirty look that gave a lot of information as to what she thought of the younger woman. The Wandering Master couldn't really care less, however, given what she had walked in on at the end.

"My brother-in-laws tend to speak the world of you," she said. "Ryuu more than Ranma, but still. Akane thinks you're a more or less harmless eccentric. Natsume has no real opinion or interest in you. But I have never liked you. What the hell are you playing at?"

"I am trying to raise my daughter to be a well-bred lady," Nodoka said.

"Hara-kiri?" Kurumi snapped, smacking her hand against the wall and raising a loud clap. "Even when it was still common, no one would expect hari-kiri out of a twelve year old girl or for such petty reasons."

She raised several more, loud clapping noises at the side of Nodoka's head with each passing word and the older woman began to wonder if her ear drums might collapse under the assault, but Kurumi made sure to avoid a degree of sound that would do real damage.

"You're one to talk about petty," Nodoka noted. "I do remember a time when you were little more than a petty thief with some moderate skills."

Kurumi shook her head.

"I grew up," Kurumi said. "You apparently just grew older. Do you have any reason why you never told Ranma about his sister?"

"I was concerned that he might feel I was trying to subvert his position as head of the clan," Nodoka said.

"Because that's what you were doing," Kurumi said coldly.

"Until recently," she said. "I was unaware that he had produced heirs. I had to take steps to continue the name."

"Continue the…?" Kurumi said questioningly before her eyes widened and narrowed again. "Please don't tell me you inflicted your opinion of appropriate sexual behavior on that girl, because I just promised I wouldn't hurt you."

It was not a joke or quip.

Nodoka knew that it was not a joke or quip.

She kept her mouth closed.

Kurumi knew why Nodoka kept her mouth closed.

She raised and clinched her fist for a moment before glancing over her shoulders a couple of times and, reluctantly, lowering that fist to her side.

"Get out of my sight," Kurumi said, stepping away and nodding down toward the end of the hallway.

Nodoka moved away as quickly as she could without losing her dignity, or at least pride and providing further fuel for Kurumi's disgust. She only stopped to retrieve the Saotome honor sword and resheath it. The woman wasn't far down the hall before at least half the reason Kurumi had held off appeared.

Shikamaru frowned as he caught sight of the woman in the hallway which was supposed to be more or less limited to the use of the fighters. He could easily read the attitude of the woman leaving, a matronly looking older woman carrying a katana which she was in the process of wrapping in cloth. However, the easy friendly expression on the person right in front of them was somewhat less easy to understand unless it was either feigned or she was oblivious to the other woman's displeasure.

"What are you doing here?" Temari asked sharply, wondering how this woman had pissed . "This is for participants in the exams."

"I think I wandered in to the wrong place," she said. "Sorry about that."

"Some of these people here have bad tempers," Temari noted warningly.

"I'll keep that in mind," Kurumi said, waving at them and walking away down the hallway.

"She's too comfortable," Temari said, wondering if it was someone working for Konoha or Sound village.

"Yeah," Shikamaru said. "Troublesome."

Still, her movements seemed pretty haphazard and civilian. Not like any ninja he'd seen before, most of the older shinobi he'd seen kept themselves at least moderately ready all the time. This woman didn't even seem to think about keeping a stance.

If he had to make any comparison at all, it would have been to the way the Ryoko girl initiated most of her fights. Only when he'd taken the time to look at that girl, he could see where she was ready underneath the appearance of being out of stance. If this woman was operating the same sort of attitude, then she was so far advanced of where Ryoko was that it was crazy.

But that was sounding sort of paranoid. As if he were saying that lack of evidence that she was a bad ass was proof positive that she was one.

He was thinking about it when they came out onto the balcony to find everyone else, aside from Ryoko who had already been heading down to the arena. It was clear that Kiba, Naruto and Hinata at least were watching the leavetaking of that woman from before with some interest.

"Where were the lot of you during my fight?" Shikamaru asked casually.

"Ryoko-chan's mother is big freak," Naruto said somewhat nonsensically to Shikamaru.

Temari didn't bother to ask Gaara anything given the pensive expression on Gaara's face. She settled for just being irritably

"Ryoko's...mother," Shikamaru said frowning.

"It's probably best not to discuss it much," Hinata said.

"She looked like she had a sunburn as she passed that Sand genin and me," Shikamaru noted. "But it's shady here."

"Big...freak," Naruto repeated.

"Uh huh," Shikamaru said. "Not getting any more out of this, am I?"

"No," Kiba said simply.

* * *

Ryoko came down the steps in something of a muddle.

The burn she had from her kishu-osore would likely have been something somebody else, even a shinobi her age, would have complained about though not something that would have overly affected her fighting ability. Ryoko, characteristically, didn't really react to it at all to that.

However, she didn't move with quite her normal energy and attitude when facing a fight.

As she reached the floor, she bit her lip thoughtfully.

"Nervous now that's it come to it?" the referee asked her with a smirk as he chewed his senbon.

"Ano..." Ryoko asked, blinking.

"Are you afraid of losing to that Sasuke now that the match is about to happen?" he asked.

"No," Ryoko said, absently. "The chi here fa..favors me."

"You think you're going to win easily then?" he asked.

"Not easily," Ryoko said. "Ih..it will be a g...good fight."

"But you think you'll win," the referee said, amused at her combination of confidence and skittishness.

She looked up toward him then.

"I am a..."

She paused then, and narrowed her eyes nervously in thought.

Her thought was interrupted as the wind brushed at her hair and she felt the sudden arrival of the two figures within even without taking the time to tune her chakra to let her see.

"Hello," Kakashi said. "We seem to be a little late."

"Tsh, your tardiness is contagious," the referee said.

"So yeah, Genma, has Sasuke been disqualified?" Kakashi asked nervously.

"Genma?" Ryoko said, curiously.

"Don't worry about it, Kakashi," Genma said. "We post-poned his match. The girl just got down here."

"Oh, so I see..." Kakashi paused as he took a look at Ryoko looking toward him and the other jonin. "Oh, Ryoko-chan, your skin is burned is something wrong?"

"Ano..." Ryoko said, flushing in embarrassment. "I...disobeyed my mother."

"Oh?" Kakashi asked.

"I...I th..think she is upset," Ryoko noted, looking up toward the stands.

Kakashi looked that way thoughtfully as Sasuke stepped forward with a smile on his face.

"Are you trying to say that you can't fight right now?" Sasuke asked.

Ryoko blinked as he came closer. Even without tuning her chakra to clear her senses, she could feel a definite change.

"Yang?" she said briefly.

"I have been doing a bit of training," Sasuke said.

Ryoko smiled brightly and laughed once.

"This will be a wonderful fight," she declared.

She smiled then and laughed briefly once.

* * *

"Hey, Tsume-sensai," Joseibi called out as she came up the stairs. "Has Oneechan fought yet?"

"It's just starting coming up, kit," Tsume said. "Sit down. Though I'm not sure what your sister will do against the Uchiha."

* * *

"What was that Shikamaru thinking?" Ino demanded angrily.

"He was just being Shikamaru," Choji said, shrugging as he ate his chips.

"It was an interesting fight," Anko said. "But these thinkers just sort of bore me in these things."

"Anko-sensei, weren't you on the edge of your seat wondering what would happen next?" Sakura asked.

"Here comes that Scaredy-Cat," Ino noted as Ryoko took the field.

"You should not speak of Ryoko-san so," a new voice added and they looked up to see Lee with a crutch in the aisles.

"Lee-kun!" Ino said. "You're out of the hospital?"

"At least for these fights," Lee said.

"Where's Gai?" Anko asked, looking around.

"Gai-sensei said he had to see about something," Lee-said. "There was a loud noise coming from the hallway of the participants, I think he must have been making sure to stop any extra combat."

"I see," Anko said nodding.

"I heard Hinata beat Nej..." he paused as he noticed Sakura sitting there. "Oh, is this the pink-haired beauty who is known as Sakura?"

Sakura frowned and pulled the collar of her jacket up to hide her face under the examination.

"That's right," Ino said cheerfully. "This is Sakura. If you think she's pretty why not sit down over here?"

And the blonde scooted aside to leave an open space between her and Sakura.

Anko rolled her eyes at the obvious ploy and Sakura glared over at her from behind her sunglasses.

"Cha! Does she think she's some kind of matchmaker?" she thought to herself before standing up. "I'm going to go get some food, I'm not interested in seeing Sasuke bully some helpless girl around."

Anko watched her walk away and grumbled in the process of standing up to follow.

"I wish she'd pick less irritating times to be willful," Anko said.

"Sakura-chan," Ino said with a sigh, watching them leave.

"Oh, there's Sasuke," Choji said.

Ino was instantly turning around and yelling down.

"Sasuke-kun! Kick that Scaredy-Cat out of the ring!" Ino shouted shrilly.

* * *

Kurumi thought carefully over the situation. Kashou, Musk, Kodachi, Nodoka, Ryoko, Konoha and who knew what else. The Anbu were especially attentive as well, she'd been seen a couple of times, though her utsuro kamae was a master's and they had dismissed her as a civilian on those brief glimpses.

At least until her display with Nodoka.

"Tsh," she said. "I let the woman provoke me into breaking cover."

"You noticed me," the man behind her said.

Kurumi turned around to look at Gai with a smile.

"I am a Master of the Redeemed School," she said and then looked past him. "I have some things to tell your people anyway, but first..."

She pointed over his shoulder and Gai frowned, but looked down toward the arena to see Sasuke facing off with Ryoko in the arena.

"This should be fun to watch," Kurumi said.

For his own part, Gai was wanting to hear an explanation for the woman's presence and behavior in the lower hallway, but he had to admit, the aspect of watching the Uchiha fight was very appealing.

* * *

"Are you ready?" Genma asked.

Ryoko stood across form Sasuke with her typical apparent lack of stance. Sasuke had seen it often enough to know the difference between someone just standing around and Ryoko's stance. Mokya's was somewhat harder to discern, Kodachi's even more so.

For one thing Ryoko's hidden stances, her utsuro kamae, consisted of this straight and proper posture and seiza. The other two had adapted it to a larger number of postures.

He smiled across at her knowingly.

"Hai," both of them said at once.

"Then begin," Genma said.

Ryoko placed her bokken into the ground long enough to perform a hand sign and then snapped it up again in time to slide around an incoming fist from Sasuke.

"Oh!" Ryoko gasped in faked surprise as she flowed under the incoming strike, floating downward in the wake of chi that trailed Sasuke's fists and aiming to clip Sasuke's knee with her bokken.

Yang pushed in, yin sinks under it.

Sasuke was already leaping over the strike with a low roll that brought him onto his feet just behind Ryoko.

Yang repels off the heavy and slow yin.

Ryoko flashed a kick backwards as she bent forward into something that was half a flip and half a cartwheel.

One flow of yang diverts the path of another.

Sasuke bent backwards into a somersault to gain some ground, moving with the trace of intent he felt flowing out of Ryoko. The sparring he'd done with Kakashi had paid out in more than just raw skill, but let him get familiar with this facet of being aware of chi as well.

Given a second or two of space as Ryoko finished her flip he flashed through hand signs and breathed out a gout of flame.

Ryoko landed and pulled her bokken behind her back as she breathed in then out and waved her hand in a circle warding out in front of her and twisting one of her feet into a circle working backwards.

The fire rushed forward into her and pushed into the soft chi being formed in the circles around Ryoko, creating a small space clear of the flame.

* * *

"Sasuke used a fire jutsu and Ryoko-chan redirected it with a pair of chao jin archs," Mokya said.

Kodachi nodded and smiled briefly behind her hair.

* * *

"What the?" Ino said, blinking. "How did she do that?"

"I didn't see a hand sign," Choji said. "I just saw her move in a circle."

* * *

"Oh, very good," Kurumi said. "Most her age would not use that method."

"What is it," Gai asked. "Most chi adepts I've met would have had trouble with fire."

"Hai," Kurumi said. "Chi can move in circles, lines or spirals. When it moves in a circle, it can be felt as a sort of current trailing the motion of the martial artist. Most young ones always move in lines if they can. It derails direct lines of force or adds to an impact, but against something fluid like fire..."

"A single point of force does nothing to divert the flames," Gai reasoned.

* * *

Sasuke was already leaping into the air as Ryoko diverted the fire above and to the side of her. His eyes were already red with the sharingan as he watched Ryoko's motions and vaguely felt the way the chi shifted around her.

Even before reaching the apex of his leap, he was unleashing a small hail of kunai and shuriken. He tried to match his line of attack behind the flows of chi, mostly warm and hot, and felt he'd gotten close.

Ryoko stepped forward then with and swung her bokken out forward, darting it in with a series of sharp jabs as she twisted about to catch and deflect each of the projectiles save a handful that already seemed to miss.

Sasuke smirked as he jerked his hands back and the missing shuriken darted around Ryoko with a twist of his hands even as Ryoko tried to leap up into the air.

Wires twisted tightly around Ryoko's body, bringing an abrupt end to her leap.

"Ano?" Ryoko blinked as she hit the ground bound up by the wires.

"Katon! Ryūka no Jutsu!" Sasuke shouted as he cast the fire down the wires.

Ryoko took a breath and formed up a hand sign, splitting the wires around her in a burst of chakra. She just barely rolled out of the way as the fire unleashed by Sasuke destroyed the location she'd just been.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Kurumi wondered with a frown as the chi snapped around Ryoko.

"Chakra," Gai said. "Released from several points on her body."

"Chakra?" Kurumi said, frowning. "And Chi?"

* * *

"I see," Ebisu said as he caught sight of the last moment.

He thought of Ryoko's tree climbing and how the bark under her feet would shatter if she pushed too much chakra to the feet.

"She's just doing the same thing," he noted. "Only deliberately, it seems."

* * *

"That was close," Sasuke thought to himself as he landed.

Ryoko was already to her feet and leaping up into the air above Sasuke. As she was coming down Sasuke slipped out of the way and shifted in a circular pattern trying to brush past Ryoko as she landed.

Ryoko immediately twisted into a sommersault to twist away from Sasuke's motion. She could see the chi about her fluctuating heavily as the flow Sasuke was stirring brushed past her and forced her to adapt to the momentary change of the chi in the area.

* * *

Mokya gasped and shifted forward almost standing.

"Sasuke is trying to disrupt her chi flows," she gasped.

Kodachi sat up and leaned forward, wishing they were closer than they were so that she could see how the chi moved through the arena.

* * *

"So, Ryoko isn't the only one mixing techniques," Kurumi said thoughtfully.

"Hmm?" Gai asked.

"He's forcing her to defend her chi or attack his," the Wandering Master said. "Chi is unending, but if your balance and posture is not in line with it, it cannot be used. And there is much that can be done by the knowledgeable when chi is fully disrupted."

"But defense uses up some attention," Gai reasoned. "Even if he has no other technique, it is worth it to deny her access to her own techniques."

"Right," Kurumi said.

* * *

Sasuke moved in then, intermixing direct taijutsu attacks with those that had no other purpose than to force Ryoko to defend her own flow of chi.

"Wah!" Ryoko gasped frantically as she twisted about to defend against both the physical and chi assaults.

To most onlookers, it seemed as if she had dropped completely to defense, but Mokya and Kurumi both watched as she responded to Sasuke's own chi assaults. A step her to push him into a shadow, a feint to make him dodge at just the wrong point.

Slowly, she saw the disruptions to her own perception of the chi wane while Sasuke seemed more and more out of step with the natural flows.

"Tsh," he said as his perception and use of chi became clumsier and clumsier. "Hopefully that still nailed her down some."

How to disrupt chi had been easy to figure out, and even mildly off balance steps that most shinobi wouldn't consider important and could easily fix would put someone off alignment with their chi from what he could tell.

It just wasn't useful against most of them, especially when he didn't know any of the techniques to exploit it.

Fortunately for him, neither did Ryoko and as she stopped seeking to disrupt his chi, he was able to start re-establishing it.

"Su..sumimasen," she said bowing and simultaneously dodging an attack.

"You're supposed to defeat me, aren't you?" Sasuke asked irritably. "Don't apologize."

He knew it was a trick of hers, but it still seemed irritating to hear her apologize for being difficult to beat.

"Hai," Ryoko said, flushing in apparent embarrassment as she jabbed her bokken out and then stepped into sweeping kick. Coming out of the spin, she jabbed forward several more times.

* * *

"Kuno-ryu kendo? Kodachi-sama? Really?" Kurumi asked with narrowed eyes and an amused smirk.

"You know Kodachi?" Gai asked.

"Hmm, her master is my sister," the other noted.

* * *

As Sasuke's kunais and blocks were draw out by the subsequent attacks, Ryoko pulled the bokken to her back and slammed forward with a palm thrust that sent Sasuke flying backwards across the arena.

* * *

"Tsk, stupid move there," Kurumi said as Sasuke recovered from the strike and retaliated with another round of fire jutsu.

"She gave him range and distance," Gai agreed.

* * *

Ryoko twisted in a tight spiral before releasing her bokken to follow the path she had thrust Sasuke along.

As the shinobi's tumble slowed to an end as he righted to himself and came to his feet finding the wooden tip of the weapon slashing out towards him like a spear. Grimacing he shifted aside and let the bokken pass him where it slammed into one of the trees in the arena and speared straight through.

Sasuke didn't take too much time to think of it as he turned to where Ryoko was darting forward. He could already feel her coming before he saw her and once again breathed out a gout of flame.

The girl's hands came into the same simple hand sign used to start the tree climbing exercise, at least until it became second nature and the need of the sign was dropped. With his sharingan, he saw the chakra fill into her hands briefly before his fire rose up in the way of what he could see.

Ryoko shifted the direction and nature of her charge out of a straight line and into spin as she reached out and trailed both her hands in opposing circles even while her body added a third axis. The fire split around her, most washing around her position, but some splitting into two distinct smaller gouts trailing her hands before slamming into the ground behind her.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, wishing momentarily that the sharingan had the byakugan's ability to see through obstructions. From his angle, most of what Ryoko had been done had been blocked by the fire itself and he only the last image of the two bolts slamming into the ground behind her.

* * *

"Hmm,one wonders when Konoha started experimenting with chi," the Kazekage said as he frowned down at Sasuke's performance.

"It's a very recent development," the Hokage said idly before continuing in his own thoughts. "Though I had not expected Sasuke to be using those techniques as well."

* * *

Ryoko took a deep breath as she was drawn into pursuit again and scorch marks were visible across her fighting robes and face where the fire had streaked closer to her skin this time.

She leaped up into the air flipping over another barrage of flame and caught a hold of a leaping Sasuke. A moment later she was twisting him about towards the ground and found herself facing a surprise as she was thrust upwards into the sky uncontrolled as Sasuke slammed into the ground with a braced stance.

* * *

"Ryoko tried to steal the wind," Mokya explained. "But Sasuke stole it first and tossed her straight up."

Kodachi nodded, tapping her fingers.

* * *

"Ha! A Saotome beat out in the air," Kurumi said. "This is a rare sight."

"And now she's in open air without something to anchor against for mobility," Gai noted. "An open target."

Kurumi nodded.

* * *

Ryoko grimaced as Sasuke unleashed another torrent of fire straight upwards at her and the chi around her wanted to move straight down. She twisted in her descent, pushing some of the fire away as before, but plunged into what remained, coming out the other end with arms over her face.

She slammed into the ground somewhat harder than she'd intended to, rolling at the last moment to shift some of the impact off of her and reach her feet, breathing heavily.

"Itai..." she said grimacing.

She could already feel the next attack coming, a barrage of smaller fire blasts. And she heard Sasuke shout something about a phoenix flower.

Turning up to face the attacks, she nodded and formed another hand sign.

Sasuke watched as Ryoko darted out to seemingly catch the first fireball in her hand, twist and hurl it back to him as her other hand caught the next.

"Kasai kaeri!" she shouted as she continued to spend and catch the fireballs with her chakra and twist them onto new paths with her chi.

Sasuke's eyes widened as the "fruit return" sent the majority of his "phoenix flower's" flames rushing back at him. He'd caught the basic concept of what she was doing, but his sharingan wasn't completely matured yet and he couldn't immediately copy it.

* * *

"Is that a technique of your school?" Gai asked.

"It most likely didn't exist until a few seconds ago," Kurumi said.

"What? It takes long practice and hard work to develop a technique," Gai noted.

"And she's done that," Kurumi said. "Her stance is the Mure no Suzumebachi training stance, a hand speed drill where the trainee is expected to intercept incoming attacks. That's usually a shi jin technique, but she's using a chao jin variant. I don't know how she's catching the fire though, that's not something in the nature of chi to make things behave against their nature so."

"She's most likely using a variation of the tree-climbing and water-walking techniques to stick to the fire," Gai said, remembering the hand sign she had shown.

"Tch, chakra breaks all kinds of rules without even trying," Kurumi said, shaking her head.

"We could say the same about chi," Gai noted. He paused and then gave another question. "You're saying that she's taking elements of several previous techniques and recombining them on the fly?"

"Hai," Kurumi said. "Saotomes do that. It's like if you were to give them five jigsaw puzzles, and they would use pieces from each to cleanly come up with a sixth picture. When they're young it seems to happen mostly in the middle of a fight, the heavier the fight the more likely something new will be made."

"How do you plan for something like that?" Gai asked.

"Good question," Kurumi said with a smirk.

* * *

Sasuke jumped aside ducking through his own blasts of fire and rolling to his feet staring across at where Ryoko stood facing him, also breathing heavily and holding her hands to her side idly.

The Uchiha nodded grimly, wondering if the girl could do that again without seriously damaging her hands. If she didn't do that, she could still simply deflect the way she had to start. He was tempted to use his chidori, but that was desperation for the reasons he'd already noted.

Learning that technique had given him the speed to almost keep up with Ryoko's, but it itself was intended for another target.

Using the chakra in such a way made it difficult to actually avoid damage and she could feel blisters rising along her skin that she couldn't simply will away. They'd heal soon enough if she had time to relax and recover, some meditation.

Briefly a smile worked over her face and she took in a deep breath of soothing air.

This was indeed a wonderful fight.

Sasuke found himself frowning slightly at the momentary happy expression on Ryoko's face and recognized a moment of what he assumed the martial artist would call "heaviness" pulsing out from the curse seal on his neck. He straightened up and pushed the feeling aside.

"Training partners make you strong," he said repeating what Ryoko had said some time ago.

It was apparently true, Ryoko was stronger than she had been when he first met her, and he was stronger than he had been. Naruto, too, had gotten stronger. Part of Sasuke wondered if he'd always be running behind one or the other and only catching them up shortly before they passed him again.

A dark part of him that had been there long before he was bitten by Orochimaru suggested that these made an excellent test for the growth of his vessel. He had so far managed to snuff that portion of himself into silence, but it was still appealing to have a target to strive for that was always moving itself.

A race without a finish line where the leader became complacent and the followers were pushed ahead.

"Hey, Ryoko-chan," he called out. "Let's finish this, huh?"

"Hai," Ryoko said nodding.

They dashed forward to meet each other, as they neared first Ryoko and then Sasuke could feel the chi flowing around and through their opponent and feel their intent forming as the first motions were taken.

Ryoko caught a strike on her forearm and responded with a snapping kick that Sasuke blocked downward. The girl twisted around the block to snap another kick up toward the side of Sasuke's head. The hand that had made the strike she'd initially blocked shifted to get in the way there as Sasuke's other hand jabbed forward to be brushed aside by a circular block from one of Ryoko's blistered hands.

He hadn't noticed that Ryoko's block was also an attack until her hand tightened around his wrist and twisted in the same circular motion to take him off his feet and attempt to slam him into the ground.

Grimacing, Sasuke reached for a roll of wire in his packet and twirled it about Ryoko's other hand as he twisted himself about in mid air to land on his feet, feeling the impact in his knees as he landed still to hard.

Sasuke gripped the wire and briefly started to perform the chidori, performing the action only just long enough to send a burst of electricity up the wire and into Ryoko's body. The girl shrieked in surprise as her muscles momentarily seized up under the barrage.

Calling out in surprise and pain, she burst the wire around her hand and tried to raise a block from the roundhouse coming in.

As of yet, Sasuke hadn't seen that orange fire of Ryoko's, and again part of him felt annoyed that she was holding back, even if he was aware that she apparently had no conscious control of the ability.

The soft arch of chi pushed his roundhouse almost off target resulting in him only managing to clip her head as past aside.

What came next, as he hung suspended mid-air at her side, was a painful thrust to his stomach accompanied by what felt like a hefty flow of chi that ripped into him.

For just a moment, his lungs forgot how to breathe and he toppled to the ground clumsily as his body shut down to preserve what oxygen it had for the moment. He stood and watched Ryoko hesitating to attack herself as she held the hand that had struck him.

Sasuke was familiar enough with Ryoko's level of pain tolerance to know something of what that meant and frowned. He pushed in, looking to end the fight quickly and get the girl out of the fight and her hands looked to.

It wasn't as easy as that however, as she continued to counter with snap kicks and elbow strikes. She backed away through the trees, unwillingly somewhat as Sasuke pressed her into the confined space to limit the mobility of her leaps and rolls.

Dodging aside one powerful roundhouse, Ryoko backed toward a tree and reached out to grab what seemed to be a branch. Both fighters immediately recognized the stick as the girl's bokken, which had apparently embedded itself in the next tree that it had reached after passing through the first.

Wincing slightly, she gripped the weapon and pulled it out, rolling away from Sasuke as she did.

Now she was blocking his attacks with her bokken as well as moving out of the trees. Her swordwork was still nowhere near what her unarmed skill was, but she had finally picked up the basics from somewhere. The impact of him striking her weapon still sent a ripple of pain through her hands, but it wasn't to the same degree as actually striking with them.

Her performance improved significantly as she pushed herself back out into the open field and waited for Sasuke to come out towards her.

Angrily, and forgetting his original intention to end this quickly and get Ryoko to where her burns could be treated, Sasuke drew back his breath and went into the hand-signs again for a fire blast.

The blaze roared out of his mouth, catching the trees ahead of him on fire as he pushed forward in its wake. As the fire cleared, however, Ryoko was nowhere to be seen.

He felt a strike of incoming intent from above and in his surprise forgot to respond defensively but merely looked straight upward.

"RYU TSUI SEN!" Ryoko shouted as she brought her bokken swiftly downward from the apex of her leap until it slammed into Sasuke's head.

* * *

His eyes opened again and he was lying on a bed in what looked like another infirmary. He looked over and saw Ryoko being seen to by a medical ninja who was wrapping her hands up with bandages.

Again that dark part of himself railed against the defeat and urged to set things right there, and again he pushed it down.

He waited until the medic was passing on to other patients to speak.

"You won?" he asked.

"Hai," Ryoko said. "But it was v...very close, Uchiha-san."

Some of the energy she had shown on the battle field, much of it in fact, seemed to have been drained aside now that she wasn't fighting and it reminded Sasuke of how she had acted before the fight.

Confused and uncertain, tired.

"Are your hands okay?" he asked.

"Hai," Ryoko said. "They should be all better in some hours. Y...you learned how to use chi very fast."

"And you're using chakra," he noted.

"N..not very well," she said.

"Who is your next match?" Sasuke asked.

"Kiba-kun," Ryoko noted.

"Kiba-kun?" Sasuke repeated.

"Ano..." Ryoko said, confused for a moment before gasping and eyes widening. "I mean Inuzuka-san! P...Please d...do not tell him. That is s...so embarrassing."

"Whatever," Sasuke said. "What'll be embarrassing is if you lose to him. However..."

Sasuke looked around carefully.

"Ano?" Ryoko asked, blinking.

"Whatever happens," he said. "Keep your eyes open. Kakashi seems to think that something dangerous is going on in the sidelines. Maybe it has to do with that freak that attacked us in the forest."

"H...hai," Ryoko said. "I s..shall keep aware."

"And be ready for our rematch," Sasuke said half darkly. "Because I'll be coming to see about this defeat."

"I am a..." she paused.

"Saotome," Sasuke finished for her.

"Ano?" Ryoko asked.

"You're a Saotome," Sasuke told her.

"Hai," Ryoko said nodding and smiling slightly. "I am a Saotome."

* * *

"She won?" Sakura said, as she saw an official come by and set up the next match. "How the heck did she win? Sasuke is a cold, merciless fighter."

"How should I know, I didn't get to watch," Anko noted bitterly, though not bringing up the fact that she'd followed Sakura to make sure that she was safe for the moment.

Still the girl seemed to pick up on it.

"Am I going to have someone following me the rest of my life?" she asked quietly. "Is my husband going to have to be someone who can...what am I saying, who's going to be interested in this?"

Anko sighed and reached out to hold the girl's nearer shoulder supportively.

* * *

"Ryu. Tsui. Sen."

Kurumi repeated with an arched eyebrow and half-lidded eyes.

"What is it?" Gai asked.

"It's...it's...embarrassment beyond words," Kurumi noted finally.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Okay, I know a lot of you have been waiting to see Ryoko and Sasuke duel.

Well.

Here it is.


	29. Accident

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked over toward the Kazekage and couldn't miss the disappointment radiating off of the man as Sasuke was defeated after what was no doubt a spectacular match in which both participants revealed skills that had been an experimental project.

The Hokage supposed it was the fact that Gaara would now not be able to fight a match against Sasuke, but there was still something under it that irked him.

He set that aside for the moment as he turned toward his aide.

"Call for an intermission, Raido," he said. "We can get these last three fights out of the way and have two left for tomorrow."

The scarred man nodded and vanished down toward the arena floor to pass the information along.

* * *

"That foolish boy," Orochimaru thought. "Dabbling in such worthless and self-defeating arts. Kabuto should not have allowed his task to be interrupted so easily. If he had kidnapped the boy then."

The creature, not precisely human any longer, frowned quietly as he considered this situation.

* * *

Takeshi looked up as Nodoka returned to the box in an obvious state of anger before she sat down again.

"You have missed most of the fights," he said.

"I suddenly found that I had things to attend to," Nodoka said brusquely.

"This last fight featured a girl by the name of Saotome," her brother-in-law said.

"Certainly I would not allow any daughter of mine to take part in such a masculine and common affair," Nodoka protested.

"Common," Takeshi repeated with something of a laugh. "We've had two Hyugas, an Uchiha and two of the children of a Kage of one of the Great Villages. Nobility is very well represented."

Nodoka bridled in uncomfortable silence as her mind cast further back.

* * *

"I'm not sure what you mean," Nodoka said, sipping her tea.

"Our families our dying out, Auntie Saotome," her visitor said idly. "The Tendos are all women, the name will die when we marry, assuming we do."

"I understood that your step-mother was pregnant with a boy," Nodoka said with a frown.

"Yeah, if she survives long enough," her visitor noted, drinking a cup of sake down in a sophisticated manner, though not touching the tea. "Happosai shut her down pretty well, and I don't know that Daddy can finish curing her metabolism issues before they finish killing her...oh, and the baby of course."

She sounded as if she was discussing a unfortunate set back, as if the situations did not really concern her. She took another sip out of her sake bowl, coughing she did so such that her sip became a gulp. A frown covered her face then and she displayed a bit more emotion than she had in discussing her step-mother's plight.

"I can certainly understand the situation with your family," Nodoka said, sipping her tea as her visitor composed herself. "But I do not think that my own is in the same situation, Nabiki-chan."

"Really, Auntie?" Nabiki asked, taking a breath as she did so and straightening her posture. "Akane and Ranma have been married for four years, have they had any children yet?"

"I was given to understand..." Nodoka started to say, frowning.

"That they were waiting while this war with Happosai was finished?" Nabiki asked. "I find it more likely that one or both of them took one too many blows to the wrong pieces of anatomy."

"Really, to speak in such a vulgar manner, Nabiki-chan," Nodoka said, frowning, but it did make her worried.

"And if they are waiting," Nabiki said, ignoring the lecture. "What if one of them dies on this war?"

"That would ne..." she hesitated.

Nabiki shook her head and sipped her sake again.

"I had a remedy in mind for them," Nabiki said in exaggerated pity. "Something I picked up in recent business. But if it's an injury, I doubt a fertility remedy will work."

"What is this remedy?" Nodoka asked.

Nabiki smiled across at her.

"While we're at it, I do have some martial arts tomes that Genma might be interested in as well," Nabiki said.

* * *

She had gone to such expense and lengths to insure her family's continuation and not only had it proved to be unnecessary, but it had proven a failure.

Her daughter was clearly a disobedient and insolent ruffian. Not the refined lady she had tried to raise. Perhaps she should not have allowed the girl the conceit of martial training.

But then she was from a martial family.

It made her head hurt just trying to think it through.

No, she decided eventually, there was no mistake on her end, clearly all the fault had to lay with her husband and her disobedient daughter. And said daughter was shielded by that wandering old maid that had been adopted into the Tendos.

There couldn't be another explanation.

* * *

"Great job, Ryoko-chan!" Naruto declared as Ryoko came into the waiting area to join the others.

"Th...thank you," she said. "But I ma..made many mistakes."

"You still won," Hinata reminded her.

"Hai," Ryoko said before turning toward Kiba. "Our match is next, K...Inuzuka-san?"

"Yeah, they just announced it will be in fifteen minutes," he said before glancing to her bandaged hands. "Are you going to be okay to fight then?"

"H...hai," Ryoko agreed, bowing.

"Are you doing okay?" Hinata asked.

Ryoko blinked in confusion for a moment.

"Ano?"

"About your...mother," Hinata clarified.

"Oh..." Ryoko said, flushing. "Sh...she was not still upset...was she?"

"Who cares if she was upset?" Naruto snapped.

"Uzumaki-san!" Ryoko responded sharply. "I do...I do..."

She sighed and leaned on the railing, wondering what she should do from this point on. If Mother was faulty, how would she, Ryoko, be able to decide the direction of her life.

She couldn't spend her life just fighting all the time, however much fun it was. But the driving purpose of her life was something that she had practically just spat in the face of.

It was so confusing.

Shikamaru frowned as he watched the exchange.

"Is someone going to explain matters?" he asked, hated being left out of some of the information.

Though he'd figured out most of it. Ryoko's mother had appeared and done something that pissed off even Hinata, which made it unlikely to be something petty given Hinata's respect for elders. The end result had Ryoko feeling less certain than usual and being robbed of some of her normal friendly, if skittish, hyperness.

He just wished the "what" part of it was explained.

* * *

Ino was still staring in shock when Anko and Sakura returned from wherever they had been.

"So, the Saotome girl won?" Anko asked.

"Uh huh," Choji said. "That Saotome girl was a really strong opponent."

"You're kidding," Sakura said. "She's so easy to push around, you'd think she was made of air."

"I don't know, she struck me as something of a blood knight," Anko said, shrugging. "A rather nervous blood knight, but still."

"Blood knight?" Sakura asked.

"It's what you call people who fight for the thrill of fighting," Anko explained.

"She was a quite determined opponent," Lee confirmed.

"There has to have been a fluke," Sakura noted, sitting down.

"No way," Ino finally said.

* * *

"So," Kurumi asked Gai as the intermission was called. "Where do you want me to go?"

She looked around and spotted an Anbu sitting in the back of the stadium.

"Maybe we should go talk to him?" she suggested idly.

Gai glanced over and himself wondered what an Anbu was doing in such an open and clear place. Said Anbu turned to glance toward them briefly as they started to walk his direction and Gai thought he saw a hand sign made under the thick robes the man was wearing.

"Hey," Gai said coming up to the man's side. "We need to speak to..."

As Gai clapped a hand on the robe, it collapsed in on itself, as if empty of any sort of bearer.

"What is this?" Gai demanded, looking around and thinking ahead. "He used a body flicker technique to leave in a hurry, and left the robes and the mask floating behind as a decoy. Very skilled. Kabuto?"

"I didn't even feel a shift," Kurumi thought as the man's chi after-image slowly faded away. "This one is good."

* * *

Kabuto took in a deep sigh of relief. That had been close, and now, without a clear disguise, he was in something of a difficult position for laying out his genjutsu.

* * *

"Did you lose purposefully?" Kakashi asked casually as Sasuke came to his side.

"No," Sasuke said. "She beat me fairly. I made mistakes she took advantage of them."

It rankled to say that however.

"I assume you've already challenged her to a rematch," Kakashi noted.

"What do we need to look for?" Sasuke asked, putting that subject away.

Kakashi glanced down toward him curiously, but didn't press the issue.

* * *

"All right! Onechan kicked ass!" Joseibi called out loudly.

"She's a strong one indeed, kit," Tsume said approvingly. "Very strong indeed."

"I still need to talk to her about that notebook of hers," Hana noted.

"Which notebook?" Joseibi asked, curiously. "Because she's been saying one's missing but whenever I ask which one she just gets flustered and embarrassed."

"Never mind," Hana said, blushing slightly.

"Like that," Joseibi noted.

* * *

A man and woman walked up toward where Kinnosuke sat, a little out of the way of the normal crowd.

"Kurumi is here," one of them said. "If I hadn't seen her from a distance first she would have noticed us. You never said anything about trying to snatch someone out from under a Master's eyes."

"Little Mikado thinks she still holds a grudge," the woman said coquettishly.

"For the uninvited kiss," Kinnosuke asked knowingly. "Or for...hurting one of her students."

"Let's discuss such things later," Sanzenin said. "Is that girl we saw in the arena the target you're looking to catch?"

Kinnosuke smiled.

* * *

Baki held his breath as he glanced about. Konoha was getting more active and alert every moment. He and his team, as well as the other raiders, had very little time before they were finally noticed.

"Gaara's next match will have to be it," he decided.

* * *

Genma looked up and around before checking the time and nodding.

"All right, everybody return to your seats as you can, the intermission is done with," he shouted. "Kiba Inuzuka against Ryoko Saotome!"

* * *

Kiba looked towards Ryoko as their names were called.

"Are you sure you're ready to fight?" Kiba asked.

"Hai!" Ryoko said a bit too insistently. "I will n..not l...lose this time, Inuzuka-kun. Pl..please fight with all your might."

She nodded fiercely and turned about to head for the arena.

Kiba widened his eyes and took a deep breath before looking uncertainly toward the other Konoha genin in the room.

"Whatever happened with her mother, the fighting is keeping it off her mind," Shikamaru said idly, without prompting. "And it might just be too troublesome to deal with it right now, so for now just go and keep it off her mind."

"Umm, she looks like she has fun," Hinata said quietly by way of agreement.

"And there's no way you're putting her in the hospital again after that fight with Sasuke," Naruto said. "At worst you're just going to knock her out."

Kiba glared at Naruto.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata sighed.

"What?" he asked.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and turned to look toward the two Suna shinobi as they looked up toward the stands towards their jonin instructor and their brother.

* * *

Ryoko walked down to the floor of the arena thinking of her last two matches with Kiba.

He had to have somehow innately mastered the Haoto no Suzumebachi, only instead of trying to irritate his opponents so that they would make mistakes, he lulled them into a sense of boredom until they weren't paying the attention they should have been.

It was a very devious trap indeed, and maybe something she should look toward employing herself. Though she didn't think she would enjoy such a strategy.

Indeed, at first, she had just thought that she was that much better and faster than him. Enough so that she had felt safe in trying an experiment in the middle of the fight that had no bearing on the fight at hand.

As soon as she did, however, wham, she was concussed and it took her months and lots of help from Kodachi-sama and Ebisu-sensei to remember what she'd figured out in that moment.

The second fight was much the same, she'd told herself over and over that she couldn't be distracted. And then she'd seen...something, she still couldn't remember. The concussion that resulted that time had prevented whatever it was that had distracted her from reaching her long term memory.

Right now she was doing the same thing as she marched down toward where the referee was, this time reinforcing it vocally.

"Do not get distracted. Do not get distracted. Do not get distracted."

Genma Shuranai arched an eyebrow at her and then turned to look at where Kiba was approaching, Akamaru on his head.

"Don't send her to the hospital again. Don't send her to the hospital."

He arched the other eyebrow and looked between both Ryoko and Kiba.

"Are you two sure you're ready for this?" he asked.

"Hai!" Ryoko said firmly.

"Yeah," Kiba said, somewhat less assured.

Sakura looked down at the two fighters facing each other and frowned as she leaned forward.

* * *

Kiba Inuzuka and Ryoko Saotome.

Last time she'd seen these two anywhere near each other, Kiba had put Ryoko into the hospital when he'd knocked her unconscious some fifteen feet over the ground.

Never mind the question of how Ryoko had gotten that high, or the fact that she had gotten the second round of the final round of the Chunin Exam with Sasuke as her first fight.

Nope, what stuck in Sakura's mind was that Kiba had kicked the, to her mind, harmless Ryoko unconscious and put her into the hospital a second time in two days.

"Isn't anybody going to do something about this?" she muttered, aggression coming to the fore.

"I could say a prayer for Kiba's soul," Ino noted quietly.

"Certainly he has been training for this," Lee said. "And they have faced each other before right?"

"This sounds like it will be good," Anko said.

* * *

"That looks like a lot of tension down there," Asuma noted. "Didn't I overhear that girl complaining about being taken lightly at the preliminaries?"

"That's right," Kurenai said. "And she lost that fight. Apparently due to a moment of distraction. Same with the second fight they had the next day."

"She doesn't seem the type to be distracted in a fight," the older jonin noted. "So this is revenge?"

"From what I've heard," Kurenai said. "She talks like these rematches are a holiday. The first one was meant to cheer her up."

"So, you're saying third date then?" Asuma asked.

"That's about the size of it," the genjutsu expert noted with a smile.

* * *

"Go ahead and begin," Genma noted.

Ryoko didn't wait this time, but stepped forward immediately into an attack, swinging her bokken in a tight circle while she made the hand sign to stir her chakra in her free hand.

Akamaru leaped off of Kiba's head and bounded to the side as Kiba bent his back under the striking bokken and flipped over the kick that Ryoko followed up with.

"Gah," Kiba gasped as he stepped back to break contact wondering why Ryoko suddenly decided to go against her normal tactics of waiting for the opponent to come to her.

Akamaru leaped in from behind Ryoko though the dark haired girl ducked aside of the dog, feeling the approach of his chi. The distraction gave Kiba the chance to reach into his pocket for some food pills as he dodged out of the way.

One of those pills he swallowed, but the other he tossed across toward Akamaru.

Ryoko stepped forward immediately and snatched the food pill with her free hand before Akamaru could snag it out of the air and swallow it. She tossed it across the arena then, until it hit the far side of the field.

Akamaru and Kiba shared a look even as the girl turned toward him, swinging her bokken.

"Su...sumimasen, Inuzuka-san," Ryoko said with a slight smile. "I'm not losing this time."

Kiba swung up to divert the bokken away and slashed inward with one hand as another reached for his food pills.

Ryoko's free hand blocked the hand strike at the risk and then she intercept another tossed food-pill with her bokken. Akamaru darted in landing on her back briefly before she flipped backwards and sending him spilling to the ground below.

"I thought you wanted me to use the Gatsuga this time!" he snapped as he stepped forward past his friend in an attempt to push Ryoko backwards.

"H...hai, but, I shall not m...make it easy," Ryoko noted as she blocked one blow and slashed down with her bokken.

For the past month, Kiba had been faced with the possibility of facing either Sasuke or Ryoko in a fight. The problem had been that while both were stronger than him over all, they were stronger in different ways.

Sasuke was smarter, and had a better foundation in ninjutsu and genjutsu, though their taijutsu had been comparable and Kiba was physically stronger and faster than Sasuke.

Ryoko was a short range fighter, faster than Kiba and more skilled in what she called "kempo". But she hadn't had any real ninjutsu, still didn't. However, her reflexes were sharper, as if she was seeing and recognizing moves earlier.

Her sword skills were cleaner as well.

That was to say that she actually had sword skills now.

He reached into his pocket intending to drop food pills behind him for Akamaru to snatch up and start the Man-Beast Clone jutsu. Ryoko nodded as she recognized what was happening and twisted around behind him as he dropped the pills behind him.

Of course, instead of small crunchable pills, Kiba cursed as he found himself dropping a handful of smoke balls in his wake. Ryoko stepped forward, expecting the food pills and focused entirely on looking out for being distracted, failed to note the difference and as her foot came down on the larger orbs, two things happened.

First, the smoke bombs went off and, second, she felt herself hurtling forward into the arena ground.

* * *

Hinata, watching with her byakugan, winced as Ryoko essentially knocked herself unconscious in that trip, though most of the other people in the arena found themselves blocked by the cloud of smoke rising up around her and Kiba.

"Kiba-kun wins," Hinata said with a sigh.

"Did he really win or just sort of win?" Naruto ask.

"Sort of win," Hinata said.

"How can you sort of win?" Shikamaru asked as the smoke down blow cleared away to review Kiba in stance and looking confused moments before showing Akamaru sniffing at Ryoko's unconscious form.

"Ryoko-chan slipped on the smoke bombs," Hinata said.

"Your kidding," Shikamaru said.

* * *

"This girl beat that Uchiha kid?" Anko asked.

"Oh, I knew this was going to happen," Sakura said, narrowing her eyes under her sunglasses.

* * *

"Don't say it," Kurenai said. "They're twelve year old kids. Don't say it."

"Absolutely nothing out of my mouth about finishing early," Asuma noted.

Kurenai shook her head and glared at him.

* * *

"And that, Ryoko-chan," Kurumi said, wincing in sympathy. "Is karma for copying moves out of a manga."

* * *

Ryoko started to sit up, blinking and confused and found herself in the infirmary...again.

"Ano?" she said, looking around.

"See, Inuzuka-kun," one of the medics said. "She's perfectly fine, just a little dazed. If you hurry, in fact, you might still be able to catch most of the next fight."

"Kiba-kun?" she asked, showing that she was still a little dazed.

"Ah, Ryoko-chan," he said. "Are you okay?"

"Oh..." Ryoko said. "You dropped the smoke bombs in..instead of the food pills. I...I sh...shall not be so tr...tricked next time."

"Tricked?" Kiba said.

"I s..see why you have not used the complete Gatsuga ag..against me yet," she said, nodding. "I...I will train hard to match your skills Inuzuka-san!"

She declared it with something akin to a joyful glee that had the other people in the room staring at her.

"Umm, sure," Kiba said, wearily. "Whenever you want."

"Wai!" Ryoko said. "Thank you, Inuzuka-san! A...as s..soon as the chunin exam is finished an...and we ar..are both f..free of missions."

She clapped her hands together and hopped off the examination table.

"No, wait," the medical ninja called out just as Ryoko, balance still off, hit the ground and swayed forward into Kiba.

Immediately she pushed off, blushing.

"Su..sumimasen," she said. "I...I do n..not know what I was thinking, umm, I...I think Uzumaki-san is fighting after us."

And with that she hurried out of the room, balance fixing swiftly as she moved with the short shifting steps of a proper young lady.

Kiba gave the medics a slightly confused look.

* * *

"She looked happy," Kurenai said as Ryoko practically danced past her. "How's Neji?"

"He is still unconscious," Hiashi said. "But he is safe."

"Didn't she just lose?" Hanabi asked, pointing after Ryoko and changing the subject.

"Yeah," Kurenai said. "She did. Kiba said she slipped on some smoke bombs he dropped accidentally."

"And...she's happy?" Hanabi asked, confused.

"She's convinced that I'm some sort of super genius and she's bound and determined to train hard and beat me," Kiba said as he entered the hallway.

There was a distinct irritation to his statement.

"It wouldn't be so bad if I knew for sure all that training was enough to actually beat her," Kiba said. "But these accidental victories...are..."

A door slammed open down the hallway revealing an angry pink-haired girl.

"Oh hell," Kiba said rolling his eyes, unaware of just how dangerous Sakura could be now.

"Kiba," she said. "You did it again."

Kurenai, on the other hand was a bit more of the potential for trouble here, and stood up in between her student and the pink-haired girl.

"Haruno-san," Kurenai said soothingly. "You need to calm down."

"You're not going to defend him, are you?" Sakura asked. "She's harmless and..."

Anko stepped in and grabbed Sakura by the back of her collar, pulling her back.

"Sorry, Kurenai," she said with a weary sigh. "Sakura-chan here still seems to leap before she looks, I'll work it out of here, don't worry."

"But he..." Sakura protested as Anko dragged her out of the hallway.

Silence reigned for several seconds in the hall outside the infirmary.

"You have a weird love-life," Hanabi said to Kiba, drawing several looks toward her.

"I have a weird what!" Kiba demanded loudly.

* * *

"We're leaving," Anko said seriously to Sakura. "You're not keeping yourself together."

Sakura was sitting down in a seat nearby in one of the lesser used hallways.

"I'm sorry, I just..." Sakura started to say.

"Yeah, it was a bit too soon," Anko said. "You're too defensive and touchy right now. All we just did was add to the rumors that are going to be coming out of the hospital already."

"And then everyone is going to either hate me or be afraid of me," Sakura asked.

"I went through that," Anko said. "One of your classmates has too."

"You mean, Sasuke?" Sakura asked, sounding a bit bitter.

"I thought you liked the Uchiha kid," the examiner noted.

"I...I don't know anymore," Sakura said. "He's...cold. Last time he talked to me...it wasn't nice. And trying to prove myself...made this happen. But nobody hates him."

"I wasn't talking about him," Anko said. "And before you ask, I can't say anything more. We're going to say bye to your crazy little blonde friend, and then we're heading back home, got it? Maybe try some of those meditations I taught you."

Sakura sighed and nodded before standing up.

They walked a little ways down the corridor and turned a corner before finding themselves facing another man coming down the stairs. Sakura looked up and frowned as she tried to place the white-haired man in the glasses above them, but Anko recognized him immediately.

"Sakura," she said. "Change of plans. We're going to capture a traitor, then leave."

"Anko Mitarashi," Kabuto said. "It's interesting to officially meet the ex...apprentice."


	30. Eruption

Gaara could care less about the signals being passed between his sister and his brother as he walked down to the floor of the arena. The one he was mostly interested in fighting was out of the competition and that meant that the sooner he got on with the plan, the sooner he would be able to take the existence of Sasuke Uchiha.

However, this one he was about to face was another person he was eager to face.

And he glanced over his shoulder to see his opponent to be speaking to the quiet nervous girl with the strange eyes.

It was foolish.

How could this one claim to have a monster inside of him. And, if he did have such a monster, how could he espouse the idea of protecting others? Did the people in this Village simply not fear monsters the way his Village did?

No, he'd watched carefully enough to see that some of the common people on the street reacted to this blonde kid the same way the people of his Village reacted to him.

So why was this blonde fool so cheerful in the face of all the hate he saw?

The final test would be now. If the blonde and this Naruto were correct, then he would be strong. Perhaps he would even be stronger than Gaara.

But that felt very unlikely.

Still, he was eager, mother's voice hadn't spoken to him much at all. He'd been too confused to hear it he supposed.

It was time to end that confusion. Sometime during this match, their mission would start, which was of little concern to him save that it would mean it would be time for the leash to come off.

"I'm ready," he told the referee as he turned to look and see his opponent also coming down to face him.

Naruto came up to join them and nodded himself.

"Oh, I'm ready," the blonde genin said. "You'd better believe it."

"Begin the match," Hayate said before backing out of the way.

Gaara crossed his arms and waited for Naruto to come at him, patient as always.

Uncharacteristically, Naruto held back thinking of what he'd seen from the fights against this kid before. He didn't particularly have anything new for dealing with Gaara.

He couldn't snatch fire out of the air or see the flows of chakra or chi.

The only thing he had trained in was in summoning frogs and controlling his chakra better.

Oh, and dealing with the damn fox, but he'd rather not have to resort to that if he didn't have to.

"Are you coming or not?" Gaara asked idly.

Naruto shook his head at that. Ryoko liked saying things to provoke him charging in, it didn't quite work so much as it used to.

"All right," Naruto shouted. "You asked for it, you'll get it!"

Naruto flashed through his hand signs and five clones appeared beside him before drawing kunai and charging into battle.

Gaara's sand rose up in instant response, rising to block Naruto's attacks.

Each of the Naruto's attacks.

Gaara seemed content to sit back and watch as six ninja slammed into his ultimate defense. This kid was not as fast as the other, and his clones may have made up for some of that, but it still didn't seem to be too much of a stretch to intercept the various incoming attacks.

A volley of kunai streamed in as the clones leaped back and the sand intercepted the weapons just before the clones returned to the melee and the sand shifted to intercept each of their attacks and kicks.

Remembering Naruto's performance against the bug-user, Gaara eyed the discarded kunai as they fell in behind his sand defense. Idly he reached out a hand to each of the six weapons and the sand he could spare reached out to grab each weapon in a gritty grasp.

"Sabaku Sosu," he muttered as each of the small clods of sand tightened inward and a patch of white smoke was released from the dissipated kunai clones.

It didn't matter whether were transformed kage bunshin or just equipment that had been cloned when the five extra Narutos were created. In either case, they were now a non-issue.

Naruto frowned as the kunai were popped into nothing, recovering some of the memories of the clone or two that he'd littered in their number.

It was a good thing he hadn't put himself forward this time.

Every clone that could charged forward then, slamming into Gaara's shield in as much the same spot as possible, trying to batter through the protection with pure repetitive force.

There was little success at that as it merely allowed Gaara to focus all his effort on one point. What's more, it began to stretch Gaara's patience and the sand genin was coming closer and closer to making an attack out of boredom.

Then one of the copied Narutos leaped out and over Gaara, seeking to take advantage of what the blonde ninja had obviously decided was a weak point in Gaara's defenses.

Idly, Gaara watched as his sand lashed upwards to grab out at the leaping Naruto and slam the clone into the ground. Most if not all the sand at his command leaped to the effort of grabbing and slamming the ninja that seemed determined to do the impossible and outflank Gaara.

As the sand was busy, Naruto and his clones continued to attack.

The sand whipped back from the destroyed clone as quickly as it could, but a pair of hits still reached through the opening and Gaara was thrust backward to skid across the arena floor.

"All right, got you!" Naruto declared happily as Gaara growled and took his feet again.

The clones coming in to follow up landed a couple of more blows and Naruto saw the sand flaking off of Gaara's body with each hit.

But none of the hits did any significant damage through the sand armor.

Gaara leaped back slightly from the next attack and then raised his hand out to control the sand around him. Sand rose up almost in a wave as it lashed out to grab at each of the Narutos, which were doing an excellent job of avoiding being caught as long as they focused on that.

Naruto was not as fast as either Lee or Ryoko, however, and as soon as he tried to press the attack, shifting away from defense, the sand caught him and pulled him in, clone by clone.

* * *

Watching from above, Hinata winced as the last Naruto was covered head to toe in sand, and that Gaara started to lift his hand to perform that crushing maneuver.

She'd been taking the habit of watching each match with her byakugan, so she was aware that one of the elder Suna shinobi was in the process of giving some sort of order, but she wasn't concerned with that as she saw Naruto-kun being prepared to face a lethal technique.

The shy girl was on the verge of jumping down into the arena to save Naruto when she stopped and her byakugan showed her what was going on in at least one of those sand coffins.

A moment later, as Gaara moved to crush each Naruto, one of the piles of sand erupted outward violently to reveal Naruto standing there.

The suddenly freed Naruto darted in at Gaara, scattering the automatic defense of the sand with an almost casual ease before raking across Gaara's chest. The armor there was torn asunder, leaving Gaara wide open to the follow up strike.

"Wh...what is that?" Hinata asked herself quietly as she regarded this extra chakra of Naruto's.

* * *

As the chakra-lengthened claws ripped across Gaara's exposed chest, blocked only by his own robes, the Sand genin gasped and bent over. Reflexively, the sand reached out to throw Naruto well clear out of Gaara's proximity.

* * *

"Did Gaara just get...cut?" Temari wondered, glancing toward the crouched Naruto nervously.

* * *

Naruto growled, quite literally, as he landed in a crouch. He hadn't meant to actually claw up Gaara's stomach like that. He'd been originally intended something more nonlethal, but the intensity of rage he felt when he held the nine-tails chakra had pushed him in that direction.

Now, however, as he leaped outward to lash at the frozen and doubled over Gaara, he insisted on curling his hand into a fist rather than use the claws that had grown out of his fingers.

He was inches away when Gaara broke the silent lack of observation he'd held immediately after the claws had raked over his skin.

The primal, chakra containing roar of pain and desperation that erupted out of Gaara then bowled Naruto easily off of his feet.

* * *

The kyubi had chuckled when his host first called upon its chakra to fight this Gaara. Let the little one up the ante this way and get more used to calling on its chakra.

It would only get easier as time went on, perhaps becoming even reflexive. Until eventually he was free to roam again completely.

Here in the seal he had only a limited understanding of what was going on around it, but he could feel the hate-filled chakra of his host's opponent. A demon that would test the boy.

Harden him nicely.

Assuming he didn't just kill the brat, which would be more than unfortunate.

That couldn't be allowed to happen.

* * *

"Hey! I didn't mean to hurt you that badly," Naruto called as he righted himself and prepared to move in again.

Slowly he was losing grip on the kyubi's chakra, the anger and fear he'd felt was fading and with it his perceived need for the chakra.

Gaara snapped a look up towards him eyes wide and bloodshot before emitting a sound that had no words and was more or less a just a raw expression of primal rage.

He looked down at his hands and gave a shuddering growl at the blood that covered them.

"I'm going to kill you," he said gasping and moving forward.

* * *

"That Kabuto is late," Orochimaru thought.

Below the jinchuriki brat was drawing on the kyubi's chakra, which meant that someone had undone his seal on the boy. He couldn't be sure of the sand jinchuriki's usefulness if he didn't start things soon.

"Let's get things started," he said out loud looking toward the Hokage from behind the eyes of his disguise.

He smiled under the white veil and palmed a thin grey tube out into the balcony around.

* * *

Kodachi was blind to the physical world, and as a result her sense of the surrounding chi was the thing that she had developed the most the past few years. She didn't have an particularly greater potential in sensing chi, but she had practiced and paid attention to it much more than most of her compatriots. She had a Master's level of chi-sense at least, perhaps a Grandmaster's, she wasn't sure.

She couldn't quite "see" what was happening in the arena, but she could feel the churning boil of hateful killing intent even as far away as she was. It was sort of like how she could feel the sun coming out on her face. Even past the range of her chi senses, the changes had an impact.

Especially large ones that changed much.

The woman laid a hand on Mokya's shoulder, causing the girl to pause in her description of what was happening.

"Is something wrong, Mistress Kodachi?" Mokya asked. "It seems that Naruto-kun is winning."

Kodachi was about to indicate that she wasn't certain when a closer, more focused and, frighteningly, more powerful source of killer intent spiked outward into the chi flows.

The heavy chi coming out of the arena was ambient and confused, hateful with no specific target or goal. There were two sources, though one was almost completely muted by the other, neither seemed to be facing the original source of their hatred. They were just projecting outward onto some other target.

But what was coming out of the balcony adjacent to the section she was sitting in was a conscious, directed hatred. More specifically, it was hatred simply for the sake of hatred.

If the arena felt demonic, what was slipping out of Kage's balcony was simply something she would expect of the devil.

Kodachi nodded at Mokya and pointed in the general direction of where she'd felt that spike of hate and intent.

An intent to more or less kill everyone.

Mokya turned about in time to see the smoke erupt around the Hokage and the Kazekage.

* * *

"How the hell did you learn to catch fire?" Kiba asked as he caught up with Ryoko.

"Th...the tree-wa..walking," Ryoko said.

"How does that teach you to catch fire?" the Inuzuka asked, followed by an equally inquisitive yip from Akamaru.

"Ih...it teaches h...how to stick to something," Ryoko said, starting to count off fingers. "Sl...slide off of something, br..break something touching you and h..how to move chakra wh..where you want it."

"You...stick to the fire?" he asked, looking at her as if she was crazy.

"Hai," Ryoko said.

She paused as she looked up and saw Joseibi working her way down the stairs with a teasing smirk on her face. She smiled and waved back at her younger sister.

An explosion across the arena drew her and Kiba's attention instantly in that direction.

"Let go of me you freaky jerky," Joseibi's voice called out from above.

Ryoko's head whipped about, eyes flaring orange as she looked to see where a woman had grabbed up her little sister.

An older off-duty genin flew down the stairs past her and Kiba, propelled by a man standing beside the woman.

"Oh, this one is so cute," the woman was saying. "Do you think Kinnosuke-kun will let little Azusa keep her for her collection?"

Ryoko shook briefly, tears pouring out of her eyes briefly before charging up the steps, bokken in hand.

"Ryoko! Watch out for the man!" Kiba shouted moving to back her up.

Azusa leaped away from the onrushing image of Ryoko, orange flames building around her. The woman's own eyes were wide even as Mikado intercepted the focused attack, and sent the slowly more flaming Ryoko rolling through a collection of quickly deserted seats.

Further up, what looked to be Kinnosuke called out to them.

"Move," he shouted, as he backed into the wall of the arena.

The trapped chi-phantom spread out into a brief sickly brown cloud that ate open a hole for the two to use and then started to drift down over the seats toward the spectators, with only a brief opening for the two other chi-users to use.

It somewhat harder to dodge a growing cloud of acid than a single flaming girl.

Azusa and Mikado did not have to be told twice as they watched Ryoko already returning to her feet for the chase.

"Damn it!" Kiba shouted as Ryoko dived through the cloud of acid.

The brown muck sizzled as she approached it, but he didn't suppose it simply disappeared, especially not as it filled in behind her.

Kiba didn't know exactly what the deal with that fire was, but he knew it was unlike Ryoko to fixate the way she had and forget bystanders. Which left it to him to deal with somehow.

"Akamaru!" he shouted, tossing the dog a food pill and leaping forward. "I hope this doesn't hurt too much."

He remembered something about stuff sliding off and dived at the cloud of acid as he activated the gatsuga with Akamaru, sending the lethal brown substance careening up into the air where it settled slowly downward. Slow enough that it was easy for people to get out of its way and free up Kiba to follow Ryoko.

As Azusa leaped out from the arena and the bundle in her arms bit down hard into her hand. With an insulted gasp, Azusa drew back her hand, leaving her holding Joseibi with only one hand.

And giving Joseibi the ability to flash through some hand signs.

The Jusenkyo-curse was not something that chi-use could handle. It brought a change to the very nature of a person, and that sort of permanent change was only wrought by chi at the extremes of the path of the false master. Usually about the same time that said false master became little more than a demon.

Control of chakra however, had dealt with such curses quite well and created a number of minor bloodlines such as the Inuzuka Clan or the Hoshigaki clan of Kirigakure.

"Kawaii Kitsune Jutsu!" she shouted.

The change that came wasn't a burst of smoke indicating an solid illusion formed by chakra, instead she simply shifted into the small form of a fox. Just like when her curse was normally triggered.

The small fox easily pulled free and darted off into the allies.

"What! Azusa!" Mikado shouted. "You lost her?"

"She bit Little Azusa!" Azusa protested. "Bad Marlene!"

Both Mikado and Azusa took off after the fox. They seemed to produce wheels on their shoes almost from nothing as they pushed off into pursuit, each on a pair of inline skates.

And then Ryoko had landed behind them, clothes still showing some of the acid she'd pulled in with her from the dissipated phantom. Underneath her, the ground shattered into a dust cloud as she pushed chakra into her feet almost instinctively.

And then she was sliding on a cushion of chakra, pushing off into a chase after them herself.

Kiba followed down after dispersing the acid cloud, catching just a faint sight of Ryoko as she chased ahead, still burning with power, though her recent chakra training gave her at least a few techniques to ease the burden on her body now.

* * *

Tsume and Hana growled to themselves as they caught sight, some distance away, of the people snatching Joseibi as well as Ryoko and Kiba pursuing. They turned toward the Sound Ninja that were currently facing them and set about dealing with them as quickly as possible.

* * *

A huge burst of smoke rose up beyond the walls of the Village just as a circle of Suna ninja finished summoning a great three-headed snake that towered up over the tops of the great trees that surrounded Konoha.

* * *

Several Otokagure filtered throughout the audience saw the signal and briefly wondered why Kabuto hadn't started to make his move yet. He was supposed to have laid his genjutsu out before now.

They were going to be that much more outnumbered now, even if most of the people in the stadium were unarmed.

One particular set of sound ninja dropped their disguises and immediately set about attacking the shinobi that they'd identified in the crowd around them before any could react.

There were five infiltrators and they were eliminated almost as soon as they'd taken their queues from the smoke signal.

"Stay in your seat," Sasuke said casually as he pulled a kunai out of the chest of one of the just revealed Sound ninja

Kakashi nodded at him with an expression that suggested he was smiling as he turned to the others in the seating around.

"Well, it looks like we may have to do some fighting," he told the surprised civilians.

Among those civilians there was the occasional older genin who hadn't been high enough to be informed of all the reason for the higher alert status the past month. Despite their lack of information, they still felt more than a little ashamed at having just been spared an embarrassing death by a newly graduated rookie.

Even if he was accompanied by one of the Leaf's stronger ninja.

"Sasuke," he said, looking down toward the arena. "I think it's time to put that technique to the test. Let's head down."

A burst of fire in some seats several balconies away drew Sasuke and Kakashi's eyes.

"That was Ryoko," Sasuke noted grimly.

"Hai," Kakashi said as the fire sped onward, following something. "This looks like we'll be operating with something of a pick-up team."

* * *

"The signal," Temari said, leaping down toward Gaara's side as Kankuro joined her from the stands. "Gaara! Let's...Gaara!"

"Get out of the way," he growled, looking toward Naruto. "I'll kill him."

Temari glanced at the bleeding cuts across Gaara's stomach and then across at Naruto who was turned to look up at the smoke at the balcony.

"What the hell is going on here?" he demanded looking up toward the Kage's balcony. "Isn't your Kage up there too? what are you just standing there for?"

"Quite simple, brat," Kankuro said. "We're the enemy."

"Eh," Naruto said, stopping as he turned to look at the three Sand siblings.

Temari was trying to get a sense of Gaara's injury and state of health while Kankuro growled toward him.

Before anything could develop out of that, Baki dropped down from the stands between the three siblings and Naruto.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. "The operation is starting."

He looked back toward Gaara and grimaced before turning back toward Naruto.

"Who would have thought there was someone here that could do that to Gaara," he thought to himself. "Can he use it?"

"It'll take some time," Temari said. "To heal and recover."

"Then get out of here," he called out. "I'll handle this one."

Baki started to move forward to deal with Naruto, the blonde still coming to terms with the fact that a war had just started. Then another ninja appeared in a body flicker to come down into Baki's way.

"Are you sure about that?" Genma said, standing in front of Naruto.

"Get out of here," Baki ordered again.

"Right!" Temari said, lifting up Gaara despite his protests and leaping away from the fight.

"Naruto," Genma said. "Go stop those three if you could, I'll handle this one."

"Huh...right!" Naruto said, nodding as he thought of Gaara's murderous statements the previous night. "I'm gone!"

And he was off as Genma covered his pursuit.

* * *

Kabuto stepped aside of Anko's attack and glanced up at the sound of an explosion and frowned. Sakura moved in then and slashed out with one of the kunai from her weapon's pouch, catching him across the cheek and bringing him back to the current fight.

"Tch, you've made me miss my appointed time, Anko-sempai," Kabuto said politely.

"I'm not your sempai," Anko said, reaching out with her hands towards the Sound spy.

A quartet of snakes flowed out from her trench coat, heading out in an attempt to wrap up around Kabuto's form and nail him down. For a moment it seemed to work, until the Kabuto that was caught melted into a pile of mud.

"Substitution," Anko snapped as she retrieved her snakes.

The real Kabuto, or at least it seemed so, appeared coming in at her back, hands glowing with chakra in an attempt to attack her muscles and leave her incapacitated.

Sakura was already stepping in at Anko's back, calling out loudly as she kicked in at his feet and sent him tumbling out of control past her sensei.

"I have your back Anko-sensei," Sakura said quickly as she moved to press her attack on Kabuto.

"Hai, Sakuta-chan," Anko said, biting her thumb. "Be careful!"

The spy easily regained his feet and dodged away from the younger ninja. A thrown kunai followed by two shuriken scratched along his arm, but did no real damage and then the girl was on him.

He easily dodged another strike from her and slipped in with his chakra covered hand to snip at the muscles along her side, the only easy opening she offered him. It wasn't something that was going to cripple her, but it should have slowed her down.

Instead, the girl merely grimaced and slashed down with her kunai, ignoring the pain that strike must have raised in her side.

Kabuto barely dodged a serious injury and the kunai still dug a line into his upper arm. However, the attack did leave Sakura open to a lethal counter, and he smiled apologetically as he reached up for her throat.

A twisting serpent reached out grip around his arm and pull him back away from Sakura who stepped back, one hand at her now injured side.

"This one smells of Orochimaru, Anko-chan," the cobra binding Kabuto's hand noted in a sinister tone.

"Hai, Nag-dono," Anko said, moving up close behind Sakura. "I thought you might appreciate a treat."

Anko leaned around behind Sakura, tracing one hand over where the girl had been injured by Kabuto, and then shifted around, pushing Sakura behind her protectively.

"Well, I didn't think you'd still be summoning Manda's brood, Anko-sempai," Kabuto said calmly, still bound by the cobra.

"Didn't you know?" Anko asked. "A cobra's favorite prey is other snakes. Eh, Nag-dono?"

"Most definitely," the cobra asserted in a hiss as he darted in at Kabuto's face only to have the traitor vanish into smoke and be replaced with a pile of leaves.

Sakura immediately twisted around to watch Anko's back as the cobra cast about looking for the escaped prey. A scent of fresh blood twisted its way down from the stairwell and Sakura caught it.

"This way! Anko-sensei," she called out, ignoring the stitch in her side as she followed the scent of blood.

Anko turned around, nodding and both kunoichi came up the stairs following the scent of blood obvious to both of them now.

What they found wasn't an injured Kabuto but the scene of several Sound ninja moving about attack the spectators and especially the unarmed Konoha ninja in the audience.

"Oh crap!" Anko said descriptively.

* * *

Hinata took a heavy breath as she and Shikamaru dodged around a wall to let some kunai slash past them. Waiting briefly and watching with her byakugan, she lashed out with a slicing chakra thread as a sound ninja came up to the corner they had moved around. Her attack passed through the stone and the ninja's body past it so that he fell in two pieces as his momentum carried him forward.

"Tch," Shikamaru said. "This is troublesome."

"We're under attack Shikamaru-kun," Hinata noted as she deflected a kunai striking in at her.

"I meant being protected by a girl," the irritable ninja said.

"Then perhaps you wouldn't mind another task," a voice suggested, both looked up to see Kakashi and Sasuke dropping down into their little shelter.

"Excuse me, Hatake-san," Hinata said as the man quiet casually snatched a pair of kunai out of the air and returned them. "What task?"

* * *

Ino watched as Naruto chased after the three sand ninja including that Gaara person and stood up out of her seat immediately starting into a run as she thought of the confrontation with Gaara the night before.

"Ino!" Choji shouted. "What are you doing?"

"He's going to need help!" Ino returned.

"But you can't..." Choji called as he followed her. "Ino, you just got out of the hospital!"

Neither looked back toward where Lee watched them leave with a hollow, depressed look to his face.

"How can I be of any use here?" he asked himself.

* * *

Kodachi stepped away from Mokya's back as the girl landed at the base of the balcony on top of which a fight of great power was raging.

"There's a barrier," Mokya said. "The Anbu aren't trying to pierce it. I suspect it is dangerous."

Kodachi nodded and walked forward slowly toward the wall of the building that held up the roof. She felt it briefly to ascertain what she hoped to find.

Smiling she glanced back toward Mokya and knocked on the stone walls of the building before raising up a finger.

Mokya nodded in understanding as Kodachi walked back and then hopped to land upon the lower overhang, well clear of walls and overhang above.

"Hai, Mistress," she said, reaching into her pocket for some darts.

She glanced up towards the barrier and the four ninja raising it, looking to make sure that the Hokage was well clear of the corner that she was looking towards. As she did so, she noted the strange sight of a pair of coffins standing in front of the man attacking the Hokage.

Then she focused on her task.

Taking a deep breath, she drew back her hand with one of the darts and filled it with chi before lashing outward with it.

"Bakusei Tenketsu!" she shouted, using the cry to keep her chi focused and tight as her intent was carried outward by the dart and into the weak point of the stone pillar.

The dart struck into the pillar and hung for a split moment before sending the entire thing exploding outward into a shower of dust and shrapnel which she quickly moved to deflect with the mure no suzumebachi.

Ryouga Hibiki or a Joketsuzoku fighter could have stayed in close to take this action, but Redeemed school preferred speed and didn't learn the breaking point the same way as was traditionally taught.

For them, the goal was the heightened perception of chi rather than the body hardening. As a result, they generally preferred, or rather had to, perform the technique at a range.

Above, Kidomaru had been smirking at the helpless Anbu, right up until the building underneath him fell away and sent him spilling downward into a pile of rock and debris.

The Hokage looked back over his shoulder briefly at the shifted in the building and watched as the four points barrier that Orochimaru's followers had raised died without the fourth in position to complete it.

"Tch," Orochimaru said with a frown as the Anbu started forward to support the Hokage. "This is getting to be more trouble than its worth."

"This sort of thing is always that way," Hiruzen asserted.

He looked down toward where Kodachi and Mokya stood.

"I suppose I'll have to deal with them first then," Orochimaru said as he directed the two resurrected Hokage's down into the forces now free to help the Hokage.

A wave of water swept downward toward the oncoming Anbu as well as where the two chi adepts were trying to hang back.

Mokya braced herself, ready to be forced backwards into a dangerous fall off the roof. Instead, the chakra summoned wave of power was split to either side of the Anbu and chi adepts as two figures landed on the roof ahead of the fight.

"Hokage-sama!" a deep voice declared as it poured from the throat of Maito Guy. "I have arrived to support you in this battle."

"Kodachi, Mokya," Kurumi said over her shoulder. "This might be a bit over you."

"Indeed," Gai declared to the Anbu. "Leave Orochimaru and these Hokage to those of us capable of handling it."

"This is an enemy beyond you," Hiruzen declared. "Let it play out for now!"

He glanced over toward Kurumi who snorted at the implication that she needed to back off.

"You don't think it's going to be that easy do you, shitheads?" Tayuya demanded as she and the other Sound Four moved forward to add to the enemies placing themselves between Orochimaru's fight and those that wanted to support the Hokage.


	31. Chase

Sakura was irritated, because Anko hadn't moved to unlock the first two seals on the snake in her mind that would let her really show these Sound freaks something. Instead, she felt clumsy and off-balance. She was hesitant about how much strength she had and either overbalanced herself, or put in too little effort.

Even with a month of training, she hadn't come to the pure, primal ability that she had when the snake was loose.

At the same time she was relieved that Anko-sensei had unlocked her seals and kept that temptation at bay. She was trying not to flinch with each strike she made and the sound of civilians running for exits as Otogakure ninja moved to assault Konoha citizens and ninja.

Part of her was slowly becoming aware that the two emotions were coming from two different parts of her. At the moment, it was nothing more than an intellectual awareness dealing with what she'd been told and trying to find differences herself. But it was a growing awareness all the same.

Sakura tried to imagine herself as stepping back and letting someone else take control, but that wasn't precisely what was going on. Even then, she couldn't seal herself completely away. She couldn't hide from what she was doing. If for no other reason than that she needed her softer self to be able to keep an eye on protecting Anko-sensei and the civilians.

When she let her aggressions run wild, it felt like she just forgot the people she was supposed to be protecting and focused only on the people she was supposed to be fighting.

"There!" Anko shouted, pointing past one of the last crowds of fleeing civilians to see Kabuto standing amongst a number of Otogakure with their snake patterned scarves. Several of them vanished off on some mission, but that still left a number of them behind to protect Kabuto.

"Hai, Anko-Sensei," Sakura declared as she moved toward the stairs.

One of the Otogakure turned to notice her and lashed out with a kunai. Sakura dodged it mostly aside, feeling it scrape across her cheek and sending the glasses on her face askew for a moment and revealing her snake-eyes.

A handful of the civilians near her noted the eyes and gasped, backing away from her as she passed by on the way to the Otogakure and replacing her sunglasses.

Anko came up another set of stairs, senbon in hands to lash out with them as Sakura moved in on the other side and the summoned cobra worked his way swiftly up through the seats.

"Persistent," Kabuto said with an amused smile as Sakura and Anko tracked in on his position.

One of the Otogakrue reacted too slowly and found himself peppered by Anko's senbon, the small needles cutting through his throat and other vital points in his shoulders and chest. He was falling to the ground, clutching his bleeding throat with his one, partially working hand as his fellows split to engage the proctor on one side.

A thrown kunai slashed into the thigh of another Sound ninja as a trio of shurikens lashed out at the others.

These weren't genin however, and as they met Sakura and Anko, the difference in skill became apparent.

Sakura's charge was stalled as two of the remaining Sound ninja moved into her position and started in on the attack. She sidestepped one, blocked the next, but was forced to sidestep again before she could use the block to return an attack.

These were at least chunin and they had more certainty of what their limits and abilities were than Sakura had. She was being forced into a defensive stance that rankled her bitterly, especially as the few shots she was able to place in were rebuffed.

When the the third ninja came down to engage her, she started to get nervous.

Which was when Nag slithered up behind Sakura and darted his head forward to snap out one of the Sound ninja who stumbled backwards.

"Anko-chan seems to think you need more help than she does," Nag said hissingly.

Sakura risked a moment to look back at Anko and saw the woman was also being forced into a defensive battle, but was leading her opponents on a somewhat merry little chase by darting around for their openings and taking the opportunity to move closer to her goal.

"Sakura, don't let them bog you down!" Anko shouted as she dodged aside of another enemy and twisted about to push her way forward toward Kabuto.

"Hai," Sakura shouted, jumping back and putting together a series of hand signs before landing in trio of images that each charged forward on a different direction.

Each complete with a copy of Nag slithering at her side as each tossed out a kunai that the enemy easily dodged.

"Simplistic," one of the Sound ninja said as they tossed shuriken out to catch the clones and dissipate them. At least one ninja glanced back to see which of the kunai remained solid as it clattered into the wall behind them.

Unlike Kage Bunshin, the normal bunshin didn't have any sliver of consciousness, but simply proceeded on a programmed route. They wouldn't dodge to avoid being revealed. But the delay was enough for Sakura to run through another set of hand signs.

As Sakura reached the three ninja in her way, she borrowed a page from Ino, as seen on the videotape that Anko had finally let her watch showing some of the preliminary fights.

Her form vanished into a puff of smoke as did the Nag beside her, leaving only a kunai hanging in mid-air with a sizzling explosive tag wrapped around it.

Nag, curled up again in the seats as he slithered up towards the original target again, coiled in on himself as the explosion went off. Sakura, not having moved too far from the point of the blast, had to pause and brace herself as the hot air slammed her into the wall.

The explosion sent the debris of small pieces of seat and flying ninja weaponry out across the small scene.

When it was clear, Anko uncovered her head to see Kabuto well down the arena away from them, moving swiftly but casually as he waved back at her with an infuriating smile.

Looking the other way, was another Kabuto running in the other direction, away from Sakura. Looking toward her first student, Anko saw her still huddled in on herself and peppered with debris from the explosive tag she had just set off. Including a light shower of blood.

"Tch," Anko said irritably as she noted some of the other Sound ninja moving in to come in on Sakura's position.

A brief glimpse told her that some reinforcements were coming in, clear of some of the fighting in other parts of the arena. Idly she kicked one incoming Sound ninja in the chest to send him crashing down into some of his compatriots.

"Sakura!" she shouted. "This isn't the time to hold back those instincts! Right part forward!"

Anko saw Nag reappear darting forward to sink fangs into a ninja that had failed to be aware of the summoned snake, and then she herself reached out to send a quartet of four snakes to wrap up and draw in a Sound ninja straight into her kunai.

Sakura dodged aside shakily and covering her head as a Sound ninja came in over the remains of the three she'd just exploded. He missed once and then Sakura took advantage of his overbalanced stance and, grabbing her last kunai, slammed it up into his stomach and twisting.

Nag, leaving behind the first of the dead ninjas intercepted the last of those attacking Sakura.

Anko momentarily free and cursing as she tried to find sign of either of the Kabuto's she'd seen before, leaped to Sakura's side and lifted her up roughly but respectfully.

"Look, Sakura!" she snapped. "You can't afford to slow down right now!"

"I didn't..." Sakura started to say.

Anko paused and turned around to look in the stands and directed Sakura's face to see where some civilians hadn't gotten out of the battle in time. It was impossible to tell whether they were killed maliciously or else just caught in the crossfire.

"If you're not a little bit of a monster right now," Anko said. "People die."

Sakura firmed up and nodded, taking a deep breath.

"I guess the explosion just shocked the other me out..." she started to say.

"Don't give me that," Anko snapped. "It's all you in there, kiddo. Snake, soul echo and all, got it. Everything belongs to you. You tell it what to do and when to do it. And if that's not the case, it's your job to make it so, got it."

"Hai," Sakura said.

"Then are ready?" Anko asked sharply.

"Hai," Sakura nodded firmly, gathering up some kunai.

"Stay close," Anko said nodding as she looked in either direction. "Nag, which direction do you think he went?"

"It is hard to say," the snake hissed. "But for one like that, I'd say to look away from the fighting."

Anko cursed bitterly as she looked toward where some of the civilians were still coming under fire in the exchange of battling ninja.

"Civies first, Sakura," she said. "Let's go."

* * *

Naruto grimaced as he tried to follow the Suna shinobi's paths. Tracking was not his strong suit. In fact, the couple of times around town that they'd had to track something they'd usually borrow Joseibi from the academy.

Naruto wondered if they'd still be doing that four years from now when Joseibi would be graduating and on a team of her own.

So that pretty much left one option for him, and it was the same one he'd used to find where Ryoko hid when they'd sparred in the trees.

There were at least ten Naruto's running through the trees in different directions keeping an eye out for any sort of thing that might tell him where they had gone.

He had to catch up to them and catch them before that Gaara guy could recover and join the battle that was apparently going on in the Village.

There was no way he was going to let someone with that kind of attitude and power go to town on his town.

He frowned then as a bird slipped down out of the sky and flew in circles over one of the Naruto's heads as the orange-clad ninja ran along.

"The hell?" Naruto asked, pausing in his run with a confused look.

The bird pulled another circle and then darted along forward down through the trees. It circled back to Naruto and then zipped along again.

"You want me to follow you?" Naruto asked.

The bird nodded furiously.

"Ohhhkay," Naruto said. "Give me a moment."

And then the naruto speaking to the bird burst into smoke much to the birds apparent surprise.

It wasn't much longer before another Naruto appeared out of the trees and the bird, apparently shaking itself in surprise was up in the air again, leading him along and moving ahead in a straight obvious line with the speed of...well a flying bird.

"Hey! Bird! Wait up! Where'd you go?" Naruto was calling out as he tried to follow.

When he lost sight of it, it shuddered for a moment and then fluttered off in a random direction, confused.

* * *

"I see him," Hinata said before gasping. "And there they are."

The little dog leading the three of them nodded in agreement with Hinata's declaration. And looked about in other directions.

"There are a couple of other scents following them," he noted. "It smells like flowers and potato chips."

"Flowers and..." Hinata said, looking a bit confused as she brought her perception back to three-hundred-sixty degrees and the area around her.

"Potato chips?" Sasuke noted.

Shikamaru stared for a moment and then shook his head.

"No, can't be," he noted. "That would be too bothersome."

* * *

Choji watched as Ino's body jerked awake and took a breath in relief.

"How dense can he possibly be!" Ino shouted as she opened her eyes. "Gah! I ran out of time! I got him pointed right, but if they've changed direction..."

"Okay, so let's head back to the..." Choji started to say.

"Okay," Ino said. "We know where they're going, we have to catch up to them and help stop them ourselves."

She nodded and raised her fist defiantly.

Choji sighed and shook his head as he grabbed a snack bag and started eating.

"You got out of the hospital yesterday, you first got back to being able to form hand signs a week ago," Choji reminded her. "How does that make you fit for a real battle?"

"Because we don't have much chance of Naruto pulling it off I'm guessing," Ino said. "So let's go."

She stretched out a little bit and then winced slightly before starting off in the direction she'd seen the Suna siblings traveling. With Choji dragged along behind her by sheer strength of personality.

* * *

"We're being followed," Temari said. "It's that yellow-haired kid, I think."

"Tch," Kankuro said. "The one that was trying to apologize for hurting Gaara too much?"

"That's the one," Temari said seriously. "He's a clone user. A smart clone user."

"He didn't seem all that skilled from what I saw," Kankuro said. "I don't care if he can summon a thousand kage bunshin, with his attitude he's just fodder. I'll stop..."

"No," Temari said. "Head on, I'll try to thin the numbers a little."

She pulled a coil of thin wire out of her pocket.

* * *

Naruto winced as he saw the clones ahead of him disappear in a flash of fire and smoke.

Traps.

"Ah crap," he said, taking a deep breath and diving through with his current kage bunshin moving ahead of him in a straight line, clearing the way.

* * *

The sound of the explosion reverberated back towards the other people following behind the two jinchuriki.

Hinata stopped on a branch and focused her eyes forward again, narrowing the degrees of her vision as she focused forwards. The nervous, worried expression on her face was clear.

Sasuke recognized it easily enough. The girl was worried about Naruto. He'd seen the same look on a number of girls before when he'd injured himself even slightly in practice or training.

He'd never seen Hinata act quite like one of those girls though. In fact, even now she was doing something useful like scanning ahead to see what had happened rather than freaking out and worrying until reminded that there was a fight going on.

* * *

Anko blinked as Sakura slammed a hard kick up between a Sound ninja's legs. The kick landed hard enough that Anko was actually convinced that she heard a cracking sound.

The pink-haired girl blinked as the sudden and unreasoning anger whipped past her and she turned back toward the living enemies.

"Where did that come from?" she wondered.

"That's the spirit Sakura! Go with that," Anko shouted with a whoop.

* * *

"Naruto-kun is fine," Hinata said with an obvious sigh of relief.

"Hinata-chan," Pakkun said. "Look behind us."

"Hmm?" the Hyuuga responded, twisting about to direct her vision behind them as requested and gasping as she did so.

"Nine?" Pakkun asked.

"Hai," Hinata said. "Otogakure."

Sasuke looked back behind them and frowned.

"A pursuit team," Shikamaru reasoned.

"We turn back and take care of them," Sasuke said.

"No good," Shikamaru noted. "Those will be chunin or higher and they outnumber us by more than two to one. Even if we win, the fight won't be easy and we'll be too late to back up Naruto."

He took a deep breath.

"The only option is bait," he reasoned drawing a flinch from Hinata.

"The one who plays that role isn't likely to live," Sasuke said.

"I don't know," Shikamaru said. "Hinata might be able to pull it off with that jutsu of hers, if she wasn't already somewhat tired. Perhaps you too."

"I'll...I'll..." Hinata started to say.

"But it has to be me," Shikamaru said, drawing several eyes toward him. "You need Hinata for the byakugan to supplement Pakkun's nose and detect more traps. Sasuke is a heavy hitter, and I think you're going to need as many of those as you can get against that Gaara. If Ryoko were here, I'd say you three have enough destructive power to be what the old records call a war-team."

He gave Sasuke a thoughtful look there.

"No, my technique is the one designed for delaying tactics," he said. "I'm the one that needs to handle our pursuers. Hinata, tell me what their formation is, everybody else should go on. I'm sure she'll catch up soon enough."

* * *

"Here they are," the leader of the Sound pursuit team said. "They're getting tired and coming out of the trees. Can't keep up the pace. I knew Kabuto was overestimating this problem. Well, we'll be able to grab that Uchiha-brat he was supposed to kidnap as well."

Behind him, the ninth member of the team landed and pulled into the shadows overlooking them. His task was to sit in hiding behind the others in case these rookies tried to lay an ambush for their team. He wasn't expecting too much, however.

"They're still amateurish enough to leave this clear of a trail," he muttered to himself.

Then he found his muscles seizing up around him just shy of the kunai entering slamming into the back of his neck.

"Hmm, and here I thought I was being too obvious," Shikamaru said with a whisper before he moved down to entrap the other eight of the Sound ninja. "Thank you, Hinata."

* * *

"Did it stop him?" Kankuro asked, thinking back toward the explosion.

"No," Temari said. "But I'm sure we cut down the number of clones he has out. I'm guessing he can't do that many more than seven or eight like he used in the preliminaries. Kage Bunshin are supposed to be massively tiring."

"Hmm," Kankuro said. "Then he just lost most of his chakra then?"

"Hopefully," Temari noted, though she thought back to when Naruto shattered Gaara's sand coffin just as her younger brother was about to use the sand burial.

Then there was his bestial appearance afterward. Did he have an Inuzuka for a parent or grandparent somewhere?

She frowned as the sound of pursuit got closer.

"Here he comes," she said irritably. "Go on ahead, I'll stop him here."

Kankuro looked nervously down toward Gaara before moving off away into the trees.

Temari turned about as her brothers vanished from sight and turned toward where the blond Konoha ninja was fast approaching. She pulled the fan off her back and unfurled it before sending a twist of wind cascading through the trees just as Naruto appeared.

"Waaah!" Naruto shouted as the wind blew him off course and he had to twist around in mid-air to land feet first into a tree.

Even then, he hit with such force that he slid off and fell downward to a large branch. Quickly he pulled back up to his feet with a bit of muttering.

"Is that all you got?" Temari wondered.

"What the hell is with you guys!" Naruto shouted at her. "Isn't Sunagakure supposed to be an ally? People are fighting and dying right now because of this."

Temari grimaced as her own argument against this action was tossed back towards her.

"I don't know the reasons," she responded. "We just got our orders a week ago, but that doesn't matter. This is as far as you go."

"I'm not letting that Gaara come back and kill a bunch of people in my Village," Naruto said. "So you can bet that I'm not going to let you stop me."

"You think you're going to stop Gaara?" Temari asked. "That's ludicrous! You don't know the first thing about..."

"Oh yeah, he told us about his reason for existing," Naruto said. "All about how you Sand people turned him into a monster."

"He told you about...it," Temari said, shocked.

"That Shukaku thing? Yeah," Naruto said. "But that ain't the worst. 'Cause you could have stopped him going crazy and you didn't."

Temari frowned and narrowed her eyes.

"What are you talking about," Temari asked. "I can't control the Shukaku."

"You looked at me like you wanted to kill me when you saw how hurt he was!" Naruto pointed out, narrowing his eyes. "You care about him! But you've never let him know that have you?"

Temari flinched where she stood at that declaration.

"It isn't the monsters we cage that drive us crazy," Naruto said in a low growl. "It's the loneliness from the people that look at us like freaks. And all it would take for you to end that was to let him know you cared."

Temari's stance started to slip as she straightened up and let her fan down momentarily. She stared with widening eyes as she took in what Naruto was saying, missing the implications about what that said about himself.

In that instant, Naruto disappeared in a large cloud of smoke and revealed a dozen of him charging forward at Temari with a host of yells.

"I can't let him hurt anyone in this village!" all the Narutos declared.

Unprepared by her brief distraction, the first of the host of Narutos reached her before she could bring her fan completely ready. The other kage bunshin were quite a distance behind this one reckless one which she slashed out to strike with her fan in the process of getting it ready to send another gale of wind.

At first she thought this lead was the real Naruto, but then it disappeared into a cloud of smoke just as she hit it, leaving behind nothing but a kunai which clattered down to the forest floor.

And then her fan was ready again and a gust of wind dispersed the remaining eleven Narutos to various places around the battlefield. Three of them vanished into smoke while the others bounced around and scattered all over the place before charging in at Temari again.

Another blast of wind took care of one flank of four Narutos, leaving her with four others coming in to test her close-combat skills. She kicked out at one, which blocked as a second came in to sweep at her remaining leg which Temari barely stopped with her fan.

The third Naruto slammed into her side and sent her slamming against a tree trunk hard. She ducked down under an attack by the fourth, letting him slam his fist hard into the trunk of the tree and giving Temari a free shot into his stomach and bursting that Naruto into smoke.

Temari rolled to her feet and eyed one of the Narutos as it made a break in the direction Kankuro had gone. Narrowing her eyes, she pushed her way through the other two Narutos and lashed out with a wind blast at the running Naruto.

Whether it was the real one or not, she couldn't afford to let it escape. When the running Naruto burst into smoke, she cursed her luck for falling for the lure.

The blast of wind left her close combat stance wide opened and she was limited to simply rolling with the impacts as the remaining two Narutos slammed attacks into her. Her lip split as one punch struck her face and she rolled backwards, stumbling.

Leaping back she tried to break contact with the two Narutos rather than meeting their charge. They both immediately split up, to deny her the ability to take out both of them with one blast of wind.

Smirking past her bruised face and body, Temari lashed out with her fan in one direction, and frowned as the Nartuo there burst into smoke, meaning that she had the real one to deal with coming in at her.

Turning about, she let the fan clatter to a lower branch and turned to face the incoming enemy ninja. Instead of getting out of the way of his breakneck charge, she drew a kunai and held it out to meet Naruto's attack.

The last of the figures slammed into her, knocking the both of them off the branch and out into open air. As the ground rose up to meet them, Temari smirked as she figured that at least she had cut off the blonde kid's pursuit of her brothers.

And then the bleeding body that had just rammed her puffed out into smoke.

Her mouth opened wide in a question as her fall was stopped upon impact with another branch of a tree, sending a bone rattling, or even fracturing, shock through her body.

Slowly, as she pulled herself up from her hard landing, she thought through the fight and tried to figure out just when Naruto had left the field.

Rising painfully to her feet and leaping upward to recover her fan, she still hadn't figured it out and was running through the fight a second time. She landed on the branch holding her fan with a wince and snatched the weapon up.

She started again with dispelling the first clone. Her fan had hit, it burst into smoke and the kunai in its hand clattered to the forest...

Her eyes widened.

That hadn't been a clone.

* * *

"Owwww," Naruto muttered as he continued the pursuit. "I didn't know it would hurt to fall all that way as a kunai...I'll have to think about it before I pull that again."

* * *

"Idiots," Kinnosuke said as he returned to his body.

"Is there a problem?" Gosunkugi asked as he stood up and started to leave the room.

Kinnosuke stood up as well and followed him out into the hallway which was a long and narrow hallway, brightly lit by the sunshine outside. The wood of the walls was old, but still in fair condition. Things were recently cleaned, as if it had been long abandoned until very recently.

"I told you the Golden Pair wouldn't be a good choice for this," Kinnosuke said. "They've lost the girl."

"Any chance they'll get her back?" Gosunkugi asked.

"Not likely," Kinnosuke said.

They came out into a room where Gosunkugi moved to sit behind a desk as a young woman, maybe in her late teens sat in a sharply attired woman's business suit. Her skin was dark with bright yellow hair, cut in a familiar short style, marking her as one of the natives of Kumogakure.

Kinnosuke instantly dismissed her as a concern, feeling no sign of chi or chakra use in her presence.

"Where are the Musk?" Gosunkugi said after a moment, the girl writing something down as he talked.

"They're late," Kinnosuke said. "But I don't think it will be much longer before they arrive in force."

"Then I suppose this ends your employment for now," Gosunkugi said.

"Until next time then," Kinnosuke said with a bow before heading on out of the room. "And maybe then I can meet your employer too."

"Maybe," Gosunkugi said, before gesturing to his secretary. "We'll be leaving soon ourselves. Please show Kashou-san out."

"Right," the girl said standing up and walking with a confident sort of sway. "Follow me Kinno-Baby."

Kinnosuke frowned at the familiar way that the powerless girl spoke but let it pass as unimportant. He normally wouldn't have cared much either way, but the girl's tone of voice was familiar.

He was almost out the door when two other figures, Sound ninja by the look of them, carried in a young girl bound up and gagged. Said girl looked drugged somehow and unable to focus on anything in particular. She had long black hair and an eye-patch that read "hard work" stitched into it.

The secretary eyed the girl's face momentarily for a bit and then nodded with a shake of the head.

"This one's a little old for our needs," she said. "And she's damaged."

"Do you question this gift brought to you by Lord Orochimaru?" one of the two ninja dragging the girl in asked.

The secretary smiled and looked toward Kinnosuke.

"Think you can give us some privacy Kinno-baby?" she asked. "I've got my employer's business to see to."

"Fine, fine," Kinnosuke said, walking off and frowning as he planned out a way to get another shot at learning what was going on with his now-previous employers.

"Now, about the girl," the secretary said, turning to look toward the Sound ninja.

"You will accept this gift," the Sound ninja noted. "Or your masters will find that you're more trouble than you're worth."

"My, my," the secretary said shaking her head. "Can't blame a girl for trying to get a good deal, can you?"

"I need to see your boss to hear from him that you will fulfill your obligations," the leader of the two ninja with the prisoner noted.

"Oh, I do believe his next layer of distractions should be around shortly," the secretary noted with a slight smirk.


	32. Rooftop

Joseibi ducked around a corner sharply as the two skaters came close to catching up to her. Both immediately passed the alley first giving her a head start on slipping further down the alley and making another turn.

As she twisted about another corner, she tried releasing the chakra that made her a fox and started climbing up the side of the house as quickly as she could.

"Marlene! Bad little Marlene!" the cutesy lady skater shouted after her.

"We're not here to collect something for you," Sanzenin declared as he turned around to try and catch up to the girl.

It was in turning about that he found himself giving enough time for the other sister to arrive.

Ryoko's fires weren't quite as high or wild as they had been in the Forest of Death, but that was only because some of the wild chakra being produced was being used by her. Still, it was the first time that either the Golden Pair had encountered something quite like it.

The chi-visible battle-auras of novice chi-users in the extremes of emotion weren't anything like this. This was real fire and as she got close, they could feel the real heat.

Ryoko slid across the ground into the pair, face looking terrified and on the verge of tears as she swept her bokken across at the older woman, the one who had actually grabbed her sister.

"Wh...where's Imouto-chan!" she demanded in a shrill, nervous tone that didn't seem to fit her raging appearance.

Azusa narrowly dodged the first strike from Ryoko and then found herself facing a roundhouse kick split-seconds away from slamming into her face. Folding herself over so that the roundhouse passed over her, followed by the small body of the elder of the two sisters, Asuza blinked and sighed in relief.

Then Ryoko slammed her other foot straight down in passing over the woman's chest.

It wasn't the firm blow she wanted, and only a fraction of her chi was available to direct downward, but Asuza still felt her knees almost shattering as the kid kicked down into her overbalanced body. She only barely escaped without serious injury...

...and an orange fire was already working up her clothes and searing the skin underneath.

Rolling away before the girl could follow up, Azusa clutched at her chest and stood up to try to get back into the fight.

Sanzenin kicked out with his skates at Ryoko, caught in mid-air and presumably unable to dodge. The girl grabbed his kicking leg with a free hand and borrowed his momentum to push her upward into the air as she pushed him down toward the pavement in a graceless trip that he only just pulled himself out of.

He limped slightly where her grip had burned his ankle.

Ryoko landed and started to come in then, aiming directly toward Asuza yet again.

Sanzenin grabbed his party and pulled her sharply out of Ryoko's way, swinging the woman around again to use her practically as a weapon against the 12-year old girl.

When Ryoko reached out to grab Azusa, Sanzenin changed the angle and force of the whirl so that Azusa came straight downward onto her feet and into position to anchor for him spinning out and catching Ryoko across the side as the martial artist was rising again in mid air.

Ryoko gasped in what sounded like fear and desperation as she landed again on the pavement roughly, rolling in a manner most would consider painful before coming back to her seat, a smeared line of ash and soot following her.

"Where's I..Imouto-chan!" Ryoko demanded again, darting forward as she shouted.

"This girl is over persistent," Sanzenin declared.

He and Asuza pushed apart from each other to let Ryoko pass between them and swinging back in behind her. The girl simply shifted into a back flip and let them pass underneath her before completing her maneuver and slamming down onto the inside shoulders of each of her opponents.

The skaters had never been the most skilled of chi-adepts, but they were competent in their specializations and deadly in teamwork for the most part. However, they had allowed themselves to stagnate since their childhood, usually only selling their services as mercenaries when they couldn't get money otherwise, and even then to a limited degree of difficulty.

They were more dangerous than the vast majority of genin, which made them among the top thirty percent of the world, perhaps, but there was a lot of gap above them.

Ryoko felt the ground underneath them crater and part of her her mind recognized that they'd channeled the majority of her attack into the ground beneath them.

The burning girl twisted about kicking the woman twenty feet across the road into and through the wall of a building as she pushed the man into a wall much closer and keeping her hands into his chest so that she could thrust her chi in where it would do the most damage and hopefully divert the kidnapper's attempts to divert it.

Mikado gasped in shock as the wall behind him cratered only slightly and a hacking gasp of bloody matter flew out of his mouth.

"Oneechan!" a voice called out from above.

Ryoko blinked as she raised her bokken up and hesitated briefly before looking up and seeing her younger sister standing on the edge of the building above her.

"Imouto-chan?" she asked. "A..are you all right?"

Her flames were already dying down around her, however at seeing her sister.

"Look out!" Joseibi shouted downward.

Ryoko was slow to recover her overall awareness as she came down from the kishu-osore, and the damage she'd done to herself in that time made itself at least momentarily an issue.

She felt Asuza coming in behind her, but she didn't move fast enough to avoid the woman slamming her skates into the back of Ryoko's head, knocking the girl off of her partner and sending her slamming into a nearby wall,

"You ruined Asuza's perfect skin! Little Asuza can't wear a midriff open dress or strapless dress ever!" the woman declared loudly. "And you hurt Mikki too! How can I find another partner?"

"She didn't mark my face yet," Mikado noted grimly as he stood up. "And I'm sure you can minimize the burns just like the stretch marks."

Asuza winced and glared at Mikado as he made that comment.

"Asuza has maintained an always perfect figure!" she protested.

Ryoko was likewise standing up and facing them.

"D...do not proceed," she warned pulling herself up to her usual mode of standing. "I d..d..do not want to hurt you."

"That's good to know," Mikado said grimly. "It really is a shame since you seem to be someone who will be quite lovely in a few years, but we've been asked to collect your sister."

Ryoko responded by leaping forward again.

"I cannot allow that!" she declared.

Without the the kishu-osore driving her every action, Ryoko was proving much hard to lay hold of, even as she attacked, but the single-minded drive to destroy the threat was no longer present either, and her attacks were less aggressive.

She letting it determine her actions, but there was pain as well, clear by the nature of her painfully reddened skin.

Her spars against Naruto had prepared her to a degree against attacks by multiple opponents, but Naruto had only recently started coordinating his clones into coherent attack routines, and Ryoko hadn't gotten a chance to fight that yet.

Asuza and Mikado had been coordinating for nearly fifteen years. Coordinating their chi, which Naruto did not do, their bodies and their minds.

Still, the apparent stalemate seemed to be leading closer to Ryoko's favor.

Until the kunai came in from above, scattering the chi adepts as they felt the shifts in the chi ahead of the projectiles.

Ryoko's first glance was toward where Joseibi had been and she caught sight of the blonde girl jumping down the side of the wall away from the attacking ninja.

The elder sister shifted into the alley way underneath her sister and caught her before pulling the younger back behind her.

"Stay c...close, Imouto-chan," Ryoko said as six Sound shinobi dropped down to support the two skaters.

"How pathetic, the bunch of you can't even handle a twelve year old girl," the leader of the shinobi said mockingly. "What does Orochimaru think he can get out of fools like you"

"Orochimaru?" Mikado said in surprise. "Who are you? We hired by someone else, not Orochimaru."

"Huh," the Sound ninja said with an amused tone of voice that implied he'd just identified the two as patsies.

Ryoko's eyes flared orange again underneath her glasses.

"I..I cannot let you hurt my sister!" she declared.

"We're not going to need to worry about what you will or won't let happen," the shinobi said with a smirk as they started to move in.

"Gatsuga!" a voice shouted as a horizontally moving whirlwind ripped through and sent several of the Sand ninja flying.

A second whirlwind slipped by taking down two shinobi on its own. Then both whirlwinds settled down into a pair of identical looking wolfish young men who moved to stand out in front of Ryoko and inviting her forward.

"Oi! Ryoko, civilians and kids need to be evacuated," Kiba shouted. "Let's get Joseibi-chan over that way, huh?"

"Hai!" Ryoko declared, orange fires fading as she reached back to hold Joseibi's hand and bring her forward.

* * *

* * *

"Mistress Kodachi..." Mokya started to say, drawing her sensei back away from the fight.

"After ruining our barrier do you think you're we're going to let you go that easily?" Kidomaru called out as he sprayed out a blast of webbing towards the two.

A salvo of kunai shot upward pushing the webbing aside, nailing it to the roof as one of the Anbu leaped upward to intercept the six-armed ninja.

Mokya looked back over her shoulder toward Kodachi and noticed her mistress focused instead towards where Kurumi and Gai faced off against two other men that felt just immensely wrong to her chi senses. The blind woman nodded and gestured for Mokya to shield her before she took up position behind the various lines.

"We'll handle this," the Anbu shouted. "Get out of here!"

Mokya stepped forward Kodachi appeared to start a dance.

Leaping into the fray she landed in front of the largest of the four warriors, coming beside one of the Anbu. She slipped her hand out to intercept the giant's incoming blows and redirect it downward into the surface of the roof beneath them. Then lashed out with her own fist.

"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" she declared loudly.

Her fist blurred as it struck outward several times into the giant man, striking with a series audible retorts that blurred into one long sound.

"I am Mokya Ono, daughter of Tofu and Kasumi Ono, student and servant to Kodachi, student to Akane Saotome, Master of the Iyoku virtue of the Redeemed school," she said firmly. "And it is my will that Mistress Kodachi be safe."

Both the Anbu next to her and the young giant paused momentarily before the fight moved on again.

Not far away, Gai hesitated as he got a close look at who he was fighting.

"Shodai Hokage, Nidaime Hokage," he said hesitantly. "Th...this is impossible."

The animated form of the Shodai Hokage leaped down silently to strike out at Gai and the taijutsu expert expertly dodged aside, though still shocked by the identity of his enemies.

The Nidaime moved forward then to strike out at Kurumi, who frowned as she barely dodged their attacks.

"They're befouled!" she called out. "Spirits risen from beyond and bent to their summoner's will. We must put them to rest!"

Nodding, but still reluctant, Gai shifted forward into an attack routine on the image of the Shodai, attacking cautiously as the efforts of the legendary First forced him on the defensive.

Kurumi found herself similarly forced backwards step by step.

"I can't feel any intent at all," she thought to herself as she deflected a shot and returned an attack of her own. "It's like fighting another Master, or a Grandmaster."

If she wanted to stand a chance, she would have to push beyond her normal reserves and risk exhausting herself early.

Both Kurumi and Mokya quickly felt a rush of chi pushing in towards them. Mokya nodded and recognized the source, but Kurumi took a moment to give herself a clear enough space to glance backward and and confirm with her eyes what her chi senses were telling her.

"Kodachi's taken up sorcery?" she noted to herself before turning fully back to the fight.

The Nidaime unleashed a blast of water then that threatened to push Kurumi, Gai and all the others off the roof again even as great tree branches were ripping upward all over the building at the behest of the Shodai.

"This is no good," Gai declared as he dodged aside the growing trees, keeping himself between the resurrected Hokages and the other fighters. "A fight of this level will rewrite the landscape and this place is not clear."

"Then let's find ourselves a new landscape," Kurumi declared shifting forward.

For a disciple like Kodachi, what Kurumi was planning was impossible given how cold the animated corpses were.

Fortunately, Kurumi was a master who had learned, among other things, to internalize the interplay of hot and cold and, to some degree, the spiral itself.

"Get ready for a ride!" she called out stepping in between the two Hokage and shifting into a tightly woven spiral.

Gai called out in surprise and moved forward to protect her, uncertain of exactly what she was trying to do.

And then as the four warriors came together, she lifted her hand in a upwards blow shouting out the words.

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!"

Kodachi's chi senses were momentarily blown away by the surge that ripped out of the manufactured reaction. The two animated Hokage and Maito Gai, meanwhile were thrust into the air on the suddenly rising winds.

Behind them, Kurumi was nursing a wound where a kunai had slashed across her side in the making of that technique, but she soon followed after them.

Mokya watched as the four most dangerous parts of this fight were carried away from the field and glanced toward where her Mistress was moving to follow the four.

"Mistress, I'll..." Mokya was interrupted in her speech as Kidomaru lashed out at her with his silk formed weapons.

She was forced to dodge aside and then found herself coming up beside Jirobo. Rolling away from that giant she started to follow Kodachi when she noted the woman pointing back to the battle.

"Reluctantly, Mistress Kodachi," she called out with a sigh and turned back to the fight.

"Take these four down and get to the Hokage!" one of the Anbu shouted.

"Trash like you can't begin to compete against us," Sakon said arrogantly.

"I'm going to enjoy feeding on your chakra and your bones," Jirobo said as he charged in at Mokya and tried to lay a sturdy blow across her body.

In the region of where Kodachi had heightened the chi, Mokya could push herself to greater speed than normal, but she knew the heightened flows of chi would not last. With Kodachi moving to follow Master Kurumi, probably due to the corrupted chi she felt coming off those two warriors, there was no telling how long that boost would last.

She flowed around her opponent, and slammed a shot into his stomach, throwing him backwards despite his larger size.

"You're a strong one for trash," he said, smirking. "We'll be seeing how strong you are when I've fed on your chakra and made it my own."

The four Anbu and Mokya pushed against the Sound Four, trying to move in to help the Hokage against Orochimaru. They were running fairly handily, even though the four barrier experts were putting up a wonderful fight.

Save the girl, who seemed to be holding back for a while.

Then she left her flute to her mouth and started to play.

Three giants appeared out of nowhere and started to support the other three of the Sound Four, sending Mokya and the Anbu scattering to the corners of the building top in order to avoid the sudden counter attack.

The Anbu landed atop some of the vast tree limbs that had been raised by the reanimated Shodai and looked downward at their opponents as black bruise-like marks started to grow over their bodies and they smirked.

"Curse marks," one of the Anbu next to her said.

This one was wearing a white robe instead of the black that the other three were wearing.

"You called yourself an initiate, what is that compared to ninja ranks?" he asked.

"Chunin, I believe," Mokya said.

"You can still leave and follow your Mistress, the Hokage's might be gone, but this is still about to get intense," he said.

"My mistress instructed that I aid you," Mokya said. "I shall do that."

"Then continue taking the giant," the Anbu in white said. "He claims to devour chakra, that should make your chi a large advantage."

"Hai," Mokya said.

"Then let's get started," he declared.

Pushing his two hands together, and wishing that he didn't have to use this technique where Orochimaru could see it, but hopefully he had his hands too full with the Hokage to pay proper attention.

"Wood Release!" he shouted.

Ahead of them, the trees earlier created by the Shodai continued to grow and twist reaching outward to grab at their opponents. In this case, the Anbu in white seemed to focus mostly on the three giant summons as the Anbu and Mokya charged in ahead of him.

Mokya was still riding the higher than normal chi flow as the yang flowed over the temporary eddy Kodachi had placed into the flows and washed upwards with increased fury and power.

She leaped in toward Jirobo again and lashed out with her fists.

"That's funny the meal comes to me," he said with a smirk.

"I'm afraid you can't eat me," Mokya said.

"Heh, your chakra and your life will be mine," Jirobo said with a laugh.

He lunged forward with a body block, which Mokya leaped over, slipping over the giant's frame and landing behind him. He smirked and reached down to mold his chakra into the roof and pull up a mound of dirt to encircle the dancing older teen as she landed behind him.

Turning around he filled the mound with his own chakra and set about to devour the chakra that his prey would inevitably form to escape with.

He quickly realized that no chakra was coming.

"Are you just going to give up then?" he asked mockingly.

And then the mound erupted outward in a shower of dirt out of which, Mokya leaped into a roll before the dirt could close up again. She was covered in a number of small cuts and bruises from where she'd used the bakusei tenketsu at too close a range.

The only reason she'd risked it was because of the fact that the mound was composed of dirt, not solid rock.

"Wh...what?" Jirobo demanded. "How did you do that without chakra?"

"Perhaps you're just too incompetent to steal my chakra?" Mokya suggested, pushing into the Haoto technique.

Predictably, the younger warrior charged forward at her with an angered growl.

Mokya stepped back and took in a deep breath as she filled her body with flows of chi heightening her prowess for the next few breaths. Then, calmly, she reached her left hand out holding it low to the ground as Jirobo charged forward, the right hand pulled straight back.

As Jirobo reached her she swiftly rose her hand upward, drawing chi along with it to lift underneath the giant's center of gravity and bringing him, with a shocked and confused expression, rising up over her head.

In the next breath, she pressed downward, letting the flow of energy from the structure underneath her flow upward into her muscles and aid her thrust straight upward into the giant's stomach.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" she shouted again, focusing as much as she could into single point on the enemy above her.

A burst of blood ripped out of Jirobo's mouth as he tumbled to the roof behind her and slammed into an artificial tree behind her.

Mokya turned about then and breathed in time with the flows of chi around her ready to move in again.

The Anbu were showing similar level of success it seemed, with the Sound Four being battered all across the rooftop. They held, however, and none of Anbu were able to break free to aid the Hokage.

"What are you!" Jirobo demanded.

"I told you," Mokya said, still using the Haoto. "Can't you understand proper speech? Are you ignorant as well as incompetent?"

"We'll see who you think is incompetent!" Jirobo declared as his skin started to turn red and bumpy as his hair grew out.

Elsewhere, the other Sound Four were likewise changing in form and growing in power.

* * *

* * *

The Shodai and Nidaime landed lightly and easily as the winds died down and they landed in the open areas immediately behind the exam arena and leading toward the forests.

Gai came down a little rougher but landed in an easily ready position as the two former Hokage turned to face him, getting ready to fight again.

Kurumi landed not long afterward and moved forward to stand beside Gai.

"There's no point in the Haoto no Suzumebachi against these," she muttered as she came up next to Gai.

"What technique is that?" Gai asked.

"Psychological warfare," Kurumi said. "Using insults to set your opponent off balance. It will be useless against mindless killing machines like these, however."

"These are the honored Shodai Hokage and Nidaime Hokage!" Gai reminded her.

"All we face are their likenesses and skills," Kurumi said.

"But still...it is not right to be so disrespectful to ones elders!" Gai protested.

"Trust me on this," Kurumi said. "Disrespect is the highest form of respect from my school."

Gai stared at her in a lack of comprehension.

"Here they come," Kurumi said.

Again the Hokages charged forward to attack, unleashing a torrent of rippling trees that funneled the raging water directly at the two warriors.

Kurumi stepped forward spinning as she went and the water bent around her, hitting her chao jin at such speed that it sped up into the air and came down in a harmless rain as Gai was already rushing forward.

"I do not like the necessity of this! But I must defeat you for the sake of the village and your own souls!" Gai shouted as he leaped downward and quietly opened the first gate to start the Front Lotus.

He slammed the Nidaime up into the air and followed instantly behind the reanimated warrior.

The Shodai started to gather his hands together then, looking to aid his brother and disrupt the lotus. Instead he was forced to turn and face Kurumi as she slipped in.

"Makai Seirei Kata! Ryuukei!" she shouted as she slammed her hands into either side of the Shodai's body.

The through one hand she sent yin and then the other she sent yang. The chi rolled through the reanimated man, rooting him in place and exiling his will from control of his body.

"Ichiaku Amaguriken!" she shouted.

The attack that followed appeared to be a normal, basic Amaguriken such as Mokya used, but it was clear to Gai looking from above that within each of the dozens of "individual" strikes visible to the naked eye, that there were at least a hundred strikes that passed without notice.

In essence, she had unleashed an amaguriken of amaguriken.

Falling backward in a battered, even shattered, husk, the Shodai tumbled away towards where Gai was even now spinning towards.

Kurumi leaped away and caught her breath from that last attack and watched as Gai slammed the Nidaime downward into the Shodai.

The ninja leaped away from the fallen warriors of his village's past and moved to stand by Kurumi.

"That was too easy," he said.

"Yeah, from what I heard, the Shodai should definitely not be an opponent I could just take out like that," Kurumi agreed.

"Perhaps without their minds, they are less formidable?" Gai asked.

Slowly, with a cracking sound the two reanimated bodies started to move and stand up. Gai and Kurumi watched as the limbs realigned and injuries vanished from the bodies of the Hokages.

"Or they just know they can survive it," Kurumi noted.

* * *

* * *

Kodachi reached the edge of the roof and let herself drop down to the balcony below at the edge of chi sense. She didn't land with the same sort of energy she would have managed fifteen years ago, but at least she managed to maintain her dignity.

What yin lacked in speed and agility, it made up in stability and grace.

She took in a deep breath and frowned. There was battle everywhere, and it was churning the flows of chi about her making it hard for her to find a specific fight.

The Black Rose felt the effects of the swollen yang chi she'd placed above for Mokya and Kurumi's benefit. Kurumi had left the area that was affected, but she had less immediate need for it. She could also feel a trace of Mokya's use of that chi.

In another direction, she felt a mass of undisciplined chi that spoke of a very large summon. It felt like a snake or three and she idly took a deep regretful breath.

They were probably beautiful snakes.

In a combination of her chi and feeling about, she found the railing and started slowly walking along it, trying to get a better feel for the situation as she moved and hopefully allowing her to pinpoint where Kurumi's hiryu shoten ha had carried her fight.

The other woman was going to definitely need her skills in dealing with those reanimated corpses.

The aristocrat paused briefly to stand aside as a group of civilians moved past her. She stepped forward again, unconcerned, blocking the path of the shinobi pursuing those civilians.

"Look, easy target!" one of the Sound ninja declared as he moved in towards Kodachi with a kunai.

Kodachi felt the intent of the attack and shook her head as she shifted aside and lightly slipped her hand into the man's chest and tossing him aside with a yin fueled chao jin.

The pattern continued as the ninja came into attack her and were rebuffed, though at the cost of a wound drawn across her hip.

"What the hell is with this lady?" one of them asked. "Is she really blind?"

"Of course she is," another said. "You notice she hasn't made a single attack against us. She can only defend."

"And that means we'll eventually win," a third noted.

Kodachi shook her head with a grim smile underneath her hair as she started shifting about with her hands reaching out toward the first ninja who shrieked in pain as his heart exploded inside his chest.

"Wh...what the hell sort of jutsu is that?" one of the other Sound ninja asked as Kodachi gestured toward him.

He shuddered and froze before throwing his head back and laughing, cackling really, and running to the edge of the balcony and throwing himself over towards his death.

Toward the last she reached up to her throat and cut across her own. Almost instantly, the ninja reached up and slashed across his own throat.

She took a deep breath and leaned heavily against the railing, reaching toward her hip. The injury would make it hard to travel.

And she still had no clearer idea of where she needed to go.

She did pause up as two figures entered the range of her perception however.

"That was impressive," a woman's voice. "Need help getting out of here? Cause it looks like your skills don't completely deal with the handicap."

"Ar...aren't you the lady that came back with Team 7?" another, younger girl's voice asked.

Kodachi waved her over insistently.

"What's the matter?" the older woman asked, curiously.

Kodachi gestured writing something.

"Why writing, just say it?" the girl asked.

The blind woman brushed back her hair to show her face and the scars around her mouth. Then she returned to gesturing for one of them to hand her over something to write on.

One of the two, felt like the older one, stepped over and held out her hand. Kodachi nodded and, with one of her fingers she traced out a name.

"Gai?" the older one asked. "You need to find Gai? Why?"

She handed Kodachi the other hand and another set of words was written.

"Does that say...exorcism, Anko-sensei?" the younger one asked.

Kodachi nodded.

* * *

* * *

Orochimaru stepped back and deflected the Kongonyoi with his Kusanagi and grimaced in amusement as pushed aside to get him inside its reach and let him slash an attack in at the Third Hokage. The Hokage responded with pulling the Kongonyoi staff back into a smaller form and deflecting the next strike.

The Hiryu Shoten Ha taking away the resurrected Hokages attracted both of the men's attention for a moment and Orochimaru sneered.

"I originally meant to set them to destroy you, old man," he said. "But it is almost better to have them set on the village as a whole. Now you get to watch as your mentors tear apart the Village along with my Sound ninja in the center of town and the Sand ninja at the edges."

"I don't think you'll find it is as easy as that, Orochimaru," the Hokage said taking a deep breath.

He thrust out the staff lengthening it as he did so to push Orochimaru backwards. The snake sannin ducked under the strike and slipped in, only for Hiruzen to pull down the other end toward the ground and use it like a pole to help him vault himself out of his old student's reach.

As Sarutobi pulled back, he unleashed a torrent of fire balls down at Orochimaru. The snake sannin dodged aside and lashed outward with his sword, the blade lengthening outward towards where his old mentor would be landing.

Sarutobi saw it coming and, letting his staff shrink in his hands, altered his direction with a flip and thrusting the staff in another direction.

Chuckling, Orochimaru darted forward, bringing his sword back in and reaching outward toward the Hokage with his hand, unleashing a torrent of snakes against the old man.

The Hokage tossed out the Kongonyoi and let the Monkey King guide himself through the air as the Hokage breathed out a gout of fire again at Orochimaru's attack, incinerating the snakes.

He landed again, panting heavily and planted his hands on the ground, calling up an uneven rising of the roof underneath Orochimaru.

The snake sannin hopped from rising pillar to pillar smirking as he did so. The Hokage stepped up, suppressing a huffed breath as he moved in to meet Orochimaru.

The Kongonyoi spun in behind Orochimaru, slamming into him and revealing a pile of leaves. The staff spun on into the Hokage's hands who paused and looked for his enemy's next appearance.

"I cannot let you have your way, Orochimaru," he declared. "I am the Hokage, who will defend this village."

"Hmm, you are merely the current head of an organization called Konohagakure," Orochimaru's voice declared as he stepped out of one of the pillars of Earth. "And there is no meaning to that once the organization is gone."


	33. Counters

"Put me down," Gaara snapped irritably to Kankuro.

Kankuro didn't waste time in stopping and putting his brother down, though doing so gently in hopes of not setting off the little monster's temper.

He glanced over and saw the heaving breaths and the shaking hand clutching at his belly where the blonde had clawed him. And it was immediately apparent to him that IT was trying to work its way into wakefulness.

"Damn it," he thought. "I'm all alone here, I'll be the first person torn apart by that thing."

He was looking away when Gaara's head whipped about.

"Get out of the way!" he shouted, tossing Kankuro away almost negligently.

The puppet user was catapulted away into a tree, landing roughly. Thankfully, he was still fresh and was thus able to keep himself more or less unharmed with the exception of his pride.

It didn't take long before the blonde ninja landed on a tree-branch over looking them.

"There you are," Naruto said as he arrived. "Do you really want to make us do this."

Gaara looked over the Konoha ninja and narrowed his eyes as he thought back to his encounter with the other ninja in the hospital. At that time, the other boy had claimed to have a monster in him, but Gaara hadn't taken it seriously until their match.

It was clear that this boy was strong, though Gaara couldn't see the loneliness in the boy's eyes. At least, he couldn't see it clearly.

"You are not who I want to face," Gaara growled. "But you're the one who is here...and you're the one that I'll kill first. And I'll destroy all that nonsense you spew forth."

And then he would find that Uchiha who had the dark eyes of hatred and ambition and that blonde girl who would stand up to him.

"Like hell you are," Naruto shouted. "If you want to hurt anyone in my Village, you're going to go d-!"

Naruto was interrupted as Gaara started to scream and double over before something massive and grotesque ripped out of his side and a voice started to whisper through Gaara's mind.

"Come! Let me feel it! Let me taste it!"

Naruto pointed out at Gaara in a bit of surprise himself.

"What the hell is that" he demanded.

* * *

"You've opened the door to these chi-slaves, haven't you old man?" Orochimaru asked as he jabbed in with the Kusanagi.

The Hokage batted the blade aside with kongonyoi freeing up one hand to perform a hand sign. Two pillars of earth rose up underneath Orochimaru from the roof and quick flash closed in on the snake sannin's body.

Orochimaru flipped away from the attack with impossible agility, narrowly escaping the closing trap before slipping forward in the sinuous motion of a snake, forcing the Hokage to dodge aside with a grunt of effort.

"It is always good to branch out into new things," the Hokage noted. "I thought your purpose was to learn every technique that could be learned. Looking for all the colors."

"I have no interest in being a slave to anyone or anything," Orochimaru said simply. "And that includes the mindless whims of the world."

The Hokage thrust outward with the Monkey King in the staff's form and chuckled as he did so.

"Instead you'll be a slave to yourself," he suggested, drawing a frown from the other man's face as Orochimaru dodged the attack.

When he pushed forward, the Hokage only rebuffed him with obvious effort, and had to take a moment to pause.

"You seem an awful lot slower than I remember old man," Orochimaru said, recovering his humor. "Could it be that age is finally catching up to you"

The sounds of fighting and explosions swirled around them as they faced off against each other, Orochimaru standing casually with a superior smile on his face.

"I don't think you can win this fight, old man," he said with a dry chuckle. "It is quite the predicament, isn't it? Age."

"I have to say," the Hokage noted. "That you seem a bit spry."

The tall man smiled briefly and lifted a hand to his face and pulled away the skin to reveal the image of a young woman. As this was revealed the Hokage's expression turned grim and dark.

"You completed that forbidden jutsu," he noted.

It had been one of the things he'd been experimenting with when he fled the village. He'd been seeking away to make his mind and soul immortal and give himself the ability to take the possession of another person's body.

"That's right," Orochimaru said in a female voice. "I am one of the immortals now, old man. I'll never have to feel that age you're feeling now. When this body grows tired and withered, I'll just move on to the next. And this way I'll have all the time in the world to learn every technique there is. Not merely all techniques in one paltry village."

The Hokage lowered his head and shook it slowly.

"Orochimaru," he said. "You are still nothing but a selfish fool."

"I'm a fool because my legacy will never die?" Orochimaru wondered openly.

"You're a fool because you have no legacy, and power is pointless," Sarutobi noted. "What use is power if you don't have anything to use that power for?"

Orochimaru frowned slightly before smiling again and returned his male face back before taking up stance and leaping forward to the attack.

"I imagine that's just rationalization, old man," he declared. "You feel your time closing in on you and you want to know that this is something worth ignoring the sort of research I have followed."

Orochimaru was tossed aside by the staff and landed low to the tiles as he hinged his jaw and disgorged serpent after serpent in an eerie and disgusting display of his connection with the summoning snakes.

The snakes slithered forward rapidly and reared up to strike, each revealing a copy of the Kusanagi out of its mouth as they lashed out at the Hokage en masse.

Grimacing, Hiruzen stepped back and slammed the kongonyoi into the roof, sending up a shower of tiles directed by his chakra to cut the heads off of the majority of the snakes as they charged inwards.

The blades and heads clattered down in a sickening rain of dismembered serpents as the Hokage shifted his hand signs and Orochimaru pushed himself forward behind the concealing jumble of snakes and swords.

It was not idle gossip that Hiruzen Sarutobi knew every technique in the Konoha village, and was able to perform every technique that didn't require a kekkei genkai.

He lashed forward with his chakra, igniting a change of nature to the chakra as it lashed outward into a mass of lightning, dodging between the metal blades and shards that were descending through the air in the wake of his defeat of Orochimaru's last attack.

The snake sannin watched as lightning leapt from blade to blade in an all encompassing net that lashed out and through his body painfully and bringing his charge forward to a brief halt as he focused his chakra on resisting and surviving the barrage of electrical death and keep the deadly archs clear of his heart.

When it was done, he slipped forward and leaned heavily on his sword, watching ahead as the Hokage dropped to a single knee and panted heavily.

"How long can you keep up this pace of self-inflicted death, old man?" he wondered casually. "How long before you accomplish my goal for me?"

Elsewhere on the rooftop, Mokya and the Anbu were still contending against the Sound Four in their various monstrous forms.

Mokya's opponent, the red-skinned giant was a skilled fighter in his style, which seemed something like a combat version of sumo wrestling. But he was slow, and in the current chi environment, she was able to at least keep up with the younger kid's strength.

Kodachi's manipulations of the local chi flows were limited to a small area that she couldn't leave without drastically slowing her pace, and the longer the fight lasted, the closer came the time when Kodachi's spells ended.

And she could feel someone else approaching.

Jirobo came at her and she darted forward around his attacks, trying to alter her strategy and toss the younger fighter out into the air over the arena. That would at least take him out of the fight and perhaps give her time to help take one of the other four down.

These kids were skilled, as skilled as she was, at least. But they weren't as skilled as the Anbu and only keeping it to a stalemate by the sheer power of their transformation.

If even one of them were taken out for as long as five seconds, then the stalemate would shift and they would be overwhelmed.

Unfortunately, Mokya's idea of tossing Jirobo out of the area of battle came to nothing as he expertly twisted himself around and landed behind her.

She felt him landing and tossed a pair of darts back behind her.

"Bakusei Tenketsu," she shouted.

The hardened clay exploded upward into a shower of shrapnel, but unlike the stone pillars, they were merely tiles covering a wood beam roof. Mokya would have been fine in the explosion that followed, it was barely a thought for Jirobo.

She had to dodge out of the way as he came charging upwards and twist around to come back in the narrow channel of heightened chi, rolling to her feet and slamming an Amaguriken into Jirobo's side, managing to focus it a little bit more this time, but at a cost.

Mokya grimaced as she felt the tell tale feelings of tearing muscles from over-straining throughout the entire path through her body that she'd pushed to deliver that attack. She already turned to focus on healing the minute damage, but it was another thing to split her attention.

That just shortened her participation in this fight, but it drew pained grunt from her opponent.

Maybe it was time to turn to yin manipulations, but she didn't think she had the level of skill that she would need to survive long enough to use the techniques she had learned from Kodachi.

Another person landed down behind her and she turned to see a kid or teen maybe close to her age, maybe younger than these monsters they were fighting, and dressed in a high necked, long sleeved coat.

And he was almost literally crawling with signs of life from a myriad of sources.

"What's this?" Jirobo asked. "Another piece of trash wants to get in our way?"

"I believe this is your end," the young man said simply as he reached outward and a swarm of insects buzzed through the air forward toward Jirobo.

Mokya shifted away from the path of the insects and watched as they swarmed over her enemy. Dropping to one knee she took a few breaths.

Several of the bugs fell away from the giant as he pushed forward, but the kids steps grew slower and more difficult before he tumbled to the roof under a host of bugs.

"I see that you also devour chakra," the newcomer said. "But it seems the appetite of my allies is much greater than yours."

Mokya stood up again and looked toward the the newcomer briefly with a nod of thanks before surging in a circle to come at the back of the girl with the flute as the insect handler moved straight forward to aid other fights.

Behind them, Jirobo was laid out unconscious and returned to his normal appearance.

* * *

* * *

"I think we found them," Sakura said, eyes wide under her sunglasses.

Anko whistled, obviously impressed at what she was seeing, she remembered somewhat what this stretch of land had looked like before. It had been mostly flat, some minor variations and a few clumps of bushes.

Now their were rents in the earth criss-crossing scattered debris of destroyed branches and roots that were thicker around than most tree trunks. Wooden splinters ranging up to the size of a small spear. There were craters and hanging dust clouds churned up by the activity and several new pools connected by jagged streams.

As they watched, a dragon formed of water was scattered aside by flash of speeding motion.

Every so often, Gai or Kurumi would pause long enough for Anko and Sakura to get a glimpse of them, but then they would surge forward again.

A rush of tree limbs rose upward and lashed outward in a veritable sea of spears only to be torn to pieces by the sudden appearance of a tornado which battered the trees for only a brief moment before it faded away.

Anko winced as one of the opponents facing Gai and this woman she didn't recognize came visible out of the chaos that was tearing apart the terrain for almost a mile in every direction.

And she widened her eyes as she recognized one of the faces from the cliff.

The special jonin turned to look back at Kodachi, remembering the term "exorcism" and frowned bitterly as she remembered Orochimaru's obsession with living forever.

Kodachi swallowed nervously as she stood with the two ninja, wondering just how she was supposed to get close enough to do what she needed to do.

And just whether or not she was powerful enough to do what she needed to do.

She'd fought at Herb's side before, she knew what sort of power someone of that level could throw around. And before her were four of them, going at it viciously.

A blur twisted into a circle with a series of explosions following it and a blast of water washed out of the center of that series pushing back Kurumi to land on the edge of the fight and dart back into it before the two resurrected Hokages could double team Gai effectively.

Steeling herself and taking a hefty breath, Kodachi stepped forward moving closer to the fight that she couldn't yet see, but which she could feel pulsing at her in huge, terrible waves.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked as Kodachi moved forward.

"I'm guessing she has to be closer," Anko said.

Kodachi nodded and continued to move forward.

"All right," Anko said, "we're moving at your pace. Sakura, stay behind us and watch our backs."

Kodachi whipped around and started to shake her head in denial.

"No time for that," Anko insisted, "Let's get this done."

Anko moved around a little in front of Kodachi and watched for incoming dangers from the fight as they moved at a soft run in their single file line of three, dodging shrapnel and pushing through eye-clogging dust.

They darted from cover to cover, trying to stay out of the eyes of the combatants, either as a distraction for Gai or Kurumi, or a target for the Hokages, until Kodachi reached out to hold onto Anko's jacket and nodding.

"Okay, so what now?" Anko asked.

Kodachi held a tight stance and took a breath as she started trailing her hands in a series of circles, lines and spirals and twisting her feet and body about in complex kata.

"Anko-Sensei, what is she doing?" Sakura asked.

"Just make sure she stays safe while she does it!" Anko said.

Kurumi paused as the flows of chi started shifting and took a moment to get herself clear enough to risk a look. She cursed under her breath as she saw Kodachi and two others on the edge of the fight and Kodachi doing something that was encouraging a pit of yin to swirl in and around her.

Sorcery.

Sorcerers could summon ghosts...and put them down.

Kodachi was trying to exorcise the resurrected Hokages. It would be best to keep their attention away from her until she was ready and, perhaps, to keep them nailed down to make it easier.

"Hey, disable them, lock them down instead of trying to destroy them!" Kurumi shouted out at Gai as she rushed in to try another Ryuukei to paralyze one of the enemies.

Gai nodded without looking toward her as he moved in toward his own opponent thinking about the older woman's suggestions.

* * *

* * *

Ryoko slashed out with her bokken and then twisted to slam her target into a wall. The opponent this time was a Sand ninja that had gotten farther than others into the village. She moved from him to another and another taking apart the enemies systematically and efficiently as they came up in front of her.

Kiba and Akamaru twisted through a small group to the side brushing them aside in a Gatsuga. Between them, Joseibi moved quietly, tossing out shuriken and kunai when she could and getting told sharply to stop drawing attention.

Azusa and Sanzenin came in then from alternate directions, trying to make a hit and run grab. Mikado found himself met by Ryoko, who never wandered far from Joseibi, and the skating martial artist again was faced with evidence of his lighter dedication to the pure art of battle as she rebuffed his charge and sent him into a painful retreat even as she twisted about to turn her attention on Azusa's approach.

The evidence of their ability as fighters was being counter productive in their goal to get out and evacuate Joseibi as more shinobi enemy converged on their position.

Sanzenin and Azusa maintained a constant attack getting rebuffed by Ryoko, Kiba, Akamaru or all three, but never putting themselves out far enough to take serious damage and taking advantage of their staying close to the younger Saotome.

"You're wearing down, little girl," Azusa taunted with a smile.

"I still shall not let you win here," Ryoko noted.

"We're going to give you that option," Mikado noted confidently. "There's too many enemies here for you to fight them all."

"What do you know?" Kiba called out tearing into a Sound ninja that pushed in, though he had to admit he was feeling tired.

Then he caught a scent on the air and smiled.

Sanzenin paused as he felt a shift in the way chi was flowing that spoke of an intent directed in his direction. By the time he turned around, Kuromaru was right on top of him, and the other Inuzuka were baring down on the scene.

"Don't you people know about dogs and packs?" Tsume asked with a snicker as she followed up.

Sanzenin barely dodged out of the way, claws raking down his arm as he pressed down away from the newcomer Konoha ninja.

From the other direction, the Haimaru brothers and Hana led in to devastate the enemy on the other flank, driving Azusa down and away from their advance from the rooftops.

Both found themselves herded closer in was Ryoko, Kiba and Akamaru tore into the ninja that were distracted between Tsume, Hana and the dogs circling around them, and the younger warriors attacking out of the center.

Then Sanzenin and Azusa were within reach and the two young fighters leaped at the chance to put them down for the fight.

Asuza folded over Ryoko's bokken before the twelve year old girl followed up with a succession of vicious strikes or one of the dogs tripped back into Ryoko's reach.

Mikado found himself smashed between Akamaru and Kiba and turning all his speed of the dance of death toward trying to keep himself alive.

Neither stood up to the barrage long and soon the Saotomes and Inuzuka were standing in a clear and calm patch.

* * *

* * *

Naruto watched as another clone was disrupted and he darted in, trying to leap around the monstrous arm.

"Is this all your monster gives you?" Gaara taunted as he breathed heavily.

Naruto ducked around the arm and slammed a fist into Gaara's face, jerking his head around but failing to wipe the smile off of the young Sand jinchuriki's face.

"What's the matter?" Gaara asked as he reacted by brushing away Naruto and slamming the other boy into the trunk of a tree. "You drew blood once already! Do it again!"

Kankuro watched as the blonde flipped up to his feet, a feral, red-eyed expression on his face.

He frowned and started to consider either pulling his puppet from behind his back or else leaving the area.

"We don't have to do this!" Naruto shouted. "You don't need to kill to exist."

"There is no other reason!" Gaara shouted and then, in his fevered, ichibi fueled madness he remembered an old conversation. "What do you mean? Love? Do these people love you? Do they understand you?"

Naruto frowned as the laughing, chortling monster made a mockery of his attempts to protect others. The barbs struck somewhat true and with a snarl, Naruto lashed inward, tearing open Gaara's arm and up toward his shoulder before leaping away.

"I'm not going to let you win," Naruto declared confidently.

Gaara shivered quietly and looked to his mutilated arm with a growing smile.

"Yes, you're worthy," Gaara said. "A fighter whose managed to hurt me, if I can beat you, then I'll truly know that I exist!"

As Naruto watched, the young man's form shifted again and a huge, grotesque tail ripped out of him.

"A tail?" Naruto wondered as the sand-formed tail gripped the branch and then catapulted Gaara forward.

A trio of clones slipped in and were dispersed easily before Gaara landed in front of Naruto and began to slash downward at Naruto.

Naruto reached up to block the blow, the sound of a host of birds chittering all through the area just before the sound of an intens and angered scream.

Naruto chanced pulling his blocking arms down and looked up to see Sasuke standing behind Gaara, blood around his hand and the last traces of white lightning fading from his hand.

Gaara stumbled forward in pain and looked towards Sasuke then and smiled before cackling madly.

"Need some help?" Sasuke asked sarcastically.

"Wow, great timing!" Naruto declared.

"Can't let you have all the glory," Sasuke noted.

"Naruto-kun, are you okay?" Hinata asked as she appeared at Naruto's side and took in the enemy.

"Two of you," Gaara said. "Two who can hurt me! This shall be the greatest of proofs!"

And then the whole upper body of Gaara's form warped into the sandy brown monstrosity.

* * *

* * *

"Looks like the flow of battle is turning against your people," the Hokage said glancing around. "And with a distinct lack of serious damage."

"This isn't the last step of things," Orochimaru said, frowning as he felt his resurrected Hokages being destroyed and watching his Sound Four be overwhelmed. "In fact, any moment now..."

The Anbu and Mokya were charging up to aid the Hokage, only to be stopped by a row of feral looking men in various sorts of fur.

"Musk!" Mokya called out. The next line mixed some concern and anger. "Hops followers."

"Ahhh, there we are," Orochimaru said.

The Hokage frowned over at Orochimaru.

"I thought you disapproved of chi-adepts," he noted.

"I don't care if they enslave themselves in advancing my purposes," Orochimaru noted practically.

* * *

"Well, that was a bit of a spot," Tsume said idly as she kicked the head of a stirring Sound ninja. "But looks like this battle is coming to a..."

She interrupted herself and moved into a defensive position along with everybody else as a new enemy showed their face, led by a massive man with bear like looks. Instantly he took in Ryoko and smiled.

"The Saotome," he said, smiling. "You'll make a good concubine to bear strong children for the Musk."

"Ano..." Ryoko said. "I p...plan to bear strong children fo...for the S...Saotome."

"What you plan doesn't matter," the bear noted. "Lord Hop will be pleased."

"You're not going to have an easy time of it," Tsume noted.

"Unless you think we're pushovers," Hana agreed.

"All the better if you're not," another Musk said. "Strong women make strong men after they're tamed."

"Oh was that ever the wrong word," Kiba growled as his response was echoed throughout the voices of the dogs and his family.

Ryoko felt the orange fire rising up in her eyes then as she pushed Joseibi behind her.

* * *

* * *

Kurumi and Gai settled down taking heaving breaths as dust twisted away from their enemies to reveal the bodies of a pair of young kids, one of whom Anko recognized from videos of the preliminaries.

Kodachi was practically floored, leaning forward on her arms and knees as Sakura started looking her over for any injury with her minimal knowledge of medical jutsu.

Gai felt his muscles shredded in the wake of that fight, he'd been forced to open gates and now he was paying for that.

And then Anko deflected an arrow directed at Kodachi.

Kurumi and Gai slowly looked up and towards the direction of the area and frowned as they saw new opponents swarming in, and Kurumi could tell their attention was focused entirely on Kodachi.

"Kodachi, the Musk are here for you!" she called out, moving to stand in front of Kodachi.

The Black Rose tried to stand up, but found it slow to happen as Sakura and Anko stepped between her and oncoming enemy.

Deliberately but unhesitatingly, Gai joined the formation.

"You are indeed a true expression of the power of youth, Mistress Kurumi," he commented. "This should be an easy battle for the likes of us."

Anko glanced toward Sakura and made a decision.

"Sakura," she called out as she flashed through the hand signs. "Probationary permission granted, ten minutes, your opponent are these Musk assassins. Unseal it when you think you need it."

Sakura shivered as she felt the scars forming the seal on her forehead shifted about in response to Anko opening the first two levels of the seal. She nodded uncertainly and tried to ignore the parts of her that were roaring for her to finish the process.

But another part of her hesitated.

It was a brief moment before the aggressive part of her won and she formed a particular set of hand signs.

* * *

* * *

Temari froze as she suddenly felt herself being watched, stopping in her effort to reach where she knew her younger brothers were. She shifted about, painfully as she tried to operate with the injuries she'd received from the Naruto clones.

"Who's there!" she demanded. "Show yourself."

To prove the point, she tossed her fan, unleashing a chakra-lace gust of wind out toward the direction she was sure someone was watching them.

"Isn't this one an ally?" a voice asked.

"Who cares, she's alone and reported as strong," another suggested.

Temari tried to trace the voices and gritted her teeth, wondering if she could put up anything like a good fight in her current condition.


	34. Defenders

Kankuro watched as the through Konoha ninja appeared and at least one of them proved to be a threat to Gaara as well. He didn't want to be anywhere near Gaara if his younger brother was going to let that thing out anymore, but he also couldn't simply sit idly by as the Konoha ninja defeated the Sand's ultimate weapon.

Grimacing he undid the wraps around his puppet and set himself forward to the battle.

Sasuke leaped away from Gaara as the other boy initiated his monstrous change and immediately found himself moving again as a flicker of intent worked it's way through to warn him of the puppet's approach.

He looked over, his immature sharingan still active as he took in the puppet's approach and dodged aside. With the sharingan's ability to observe things quickly and accurately, it was easy to note the poison that flowed out of the hidden knife that tried to stab him.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and grimaced as he looked about for the puppeteer, avoiding another slash from the puppet. As he moved, he experimentally applied one of the tricks he'd seen Ryoko using in their match and sent the puppet spinning around past him with a chi-enhanced flow.

The chakra threads were easily visible leading back to the puppeteer and Sasuke leaped out to engage the other ninja, aware that this distraction was probably what he had been aiming at in the first place.

Elsewhere, the fight with Gaara was still happening.

Gaara watched as Kankuro drew Sasuke off with a snarl and started to move after the other ninja.

"I'm your opponent, remember?" Naruto shouted as he dived forward, channeling a dark chakra that made Hinata nervous to see.

Charged with Kyubi's power, Naruto landed between Gaara and where Sasuke had been drawn off. Quickly he ran through the hand signs and summoned a trio of clones to charge in with him with the insane speed and strength that the Kyubi's chakra provided him.

Gaara wasn't much slower and was plenty stronger as his mismatched body reacted to the threat and he chortled madly. Swinging around one massive arm he swept aside two clones that couldn't move out of the way fast enough and was preparing to bring the other arm to bear when it was slashed viciously by the girl that had come with the Uchiha.

Hinata panted as she stepped in and performed her own offensive version of the rotation, muscles and chakra coils screaming in agony as she pushed more of herself into action.

The great mutated arm split apart in a shower of sand that fell around her and immediately sought to close about her. Reacting as quickly as she could she leaped out of the middle of the swirling sand tried to get clear as she watched the arm reforming despite her efforts.

A tendril of the sand of the arm reached out to grab her foot and jerk her forward. One of the two remaining Naruto's struck in at the main body then, slamming a fist into the stomach of Gaara's grotesquely altered form and shifting the warrior back several feet as the other Naruto slammed down through the tendril of sand grabbing Hinata.

One Naruto landed protectively between Hinata and Gaara then as Hinata controlled her post release fall to land lightly behind Naruto, taking a hefty breath that she tried to conceal.

The Naruto attackign Gaara got several more strikes in against the still laughing Suna ninja until he was almost casually thrown aside.

Hinata felt her heart leaping in her throat for a moment, but then the other Naruto erupted into a puff of smoke.

"Hinata-chan, I've got this," Naruto said.

"I can help you," Hinata declared.

Whatever Naruto had been about to say was interrupted as one of Gaara's arms launched forward from an impossible distance and the two Konoha ninja had to leap away to avoid being struck.

Gaara leaped forward with his comparatively stubby legs then, chasing after them.

"Oh, I see," Gaara declared. "Is she one of these people you want to protect? Is she what makes you so strong?"

Naruto tried to form a seal to summon more clones and was clipped by a flashing mutated arm and sent sprawling away towards a tree. Hinata grabbed at him and used her own momentum to shift Naruto's toward a gentler, more controlled landing and immediately had to throw herself into a flip to avoid the monster's attack herself.

The blonde genin leaped forward instantly, cutting off Gaara from attacking Hinata as the other girl recovered from rescuing him.

Hinata almost stumbled from the fatigue wiping over her, but refused to let it show, knowing that that was why Naruto wanted her to leave him to face Gaara alone.

He was worried that she still hadn't totally recovered from her match with Neji.

Naruto was right.

But that didn't matter to her.

The hyperactive ninja of Team 7 kicked away one hand and started to summon clones as the next came in at him. Steeling herself, she pushed forward and thrust a burst of chakra through her palm into the attack that now sought to disrupt Naruto's jutsu before it could be cast.

It wasn't the Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō, she didn't have the chakra or stamina for that right now, but it sent enough of a wave of destruction through the chakra bound sand forming the arm that it stopped the disrupting attack cold.

A burst of smoke and rough hands pulling her back to safety told her that Naruto had summoned his clones as they moved to the attack.

Kankuro cursed as Sasuke zeroed right in on his position and twisted his hands to call Crow back in with speed. He leaped away at the very last instant he could, Sasuke slamming into the leaves that had hidden him.

Sasuke then rolled back as a small explosion unleashed a noxious smelling purple smoke that Sasuke was quick to back away from.

"Katon!" he shouted rushing through the necessary hand signs to unleash the fire and burn away the smoke before it could continue to trail after him.

Immediately afterward, he unleashed a volley of shuriken out at Kankuro with one hand, even as he turned his head about to pull the fire slipping out of his mouth out against Crow.

Noting the shuriken's slipping his way, the puppeteer still desperately pulled on Crow's threads to get the wooden puppet out of the way of the flames. It was an old tool of war that had seen fire before, but it would be hard to repair it from such damage.

And once he was out his puppet, he was no longer going to be able to distract this one from the battle with Gaara.

There was no question that that's all he was. Sasuke had acknowledged that Kankuro was too good and too healthy to be allowed to run free and harass the Konoha ninja, but his attacks were all calm, unhurried and almost casual.

He was pacing himself and trying not to blow all his chakra against this lesser opponent, but he was going to win.

That was pretty simple and obvious to Kankuro as the shurikens sliced up his body. He'd been too late to both grab Crow out of the fire and dodge.

Sasuke leaped forward again slamming into the tree beside where Kankuro retreated to. In the blink of an eye, his fist was in the puppeteer's stomach and then a foot was crushing into his skull.

Given a moment of pride at his victory over Kankuro, the puppeteer slumping down onto the branch beneath them, Sasuke failed to note Crow coming in a chaotic mass of wood and metal until it was almost too late.

He leaped away feeling a burning sensation slipping into his right arm and traveling upward faintly. He looked and saw where one of the puppet's knives had grazed him in his last second evasion.

"Damn it," he muttered.

"Heh," Kankuro said gasping for breath through a bleeding mouth. "Scratched you."

"Doesn't matter," Sasuke said. "You're out of this fight, and I'm still in it."

"For how long?" the puppeteer asked before passing out.

Sasuke grimaced and leaped away from one Sand ninja to approach the next. He landed on a tree overlooking the fight between Naruto, Hinata and Gaara.

They had the monstrous Sand genin more than well distracted, though it was clear that Hinata was hampered by growing fatigue.

"One more shot left," he muttered, referring to his chidori as he started to gather his chakra together.

He ignored the pain in his arm.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted. "Shuriken!"

She rolled aside as a barrage of sand shurikens whipped through the scene, wincing as a deep cut was pulled out of her upper arm.

Several clones nodded as two Naruto's hung back, one to guard Hinata and the other performing a series of hand signs that it took a moment for Hinata to recognize.

"That's..." she said.

Above them, Sasuke paused himself as he saw what Naruto was doing.

"Kuchiyose!" Naruto shouted after biting his thumb and slamming his fist down into the tree branch below him.

The result when the smoke cleared was less than impressive however.

"Hello," the little orange frog that appeared said with a wave.

"What the hell?" the summoning Naruto shouted. "What are you doing here?"

"What the hell? Is that anyway to treat a visitor?" the frog asked.

"Naruto!" Hinata shouted.

An explosion of wind and sand scattered the half-dozen clones that Naruto had summoned and pushed against the two ninja mercilessly, cutting small lines into them as it passed.

Hinata winced again as the Naruto beside burst into flame and the other scooped up the frog and turned his back to the attack, standing in front of her and shielding her from the bulk of the attack.

As the wind died down, Naruto started to stumble forward, breathing heavily and handing the frog over toward Hinata.

"Get him out of here," he said irritably.

"What's going on here?" the little frog demanded quickly.

Grimacing at the realization that this was also to move her to safety, Hinata nodded and started to leap away.

And then she was slammed by a massive clump of sand, the little frog easily jumping clear from her as it happened.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto shouted as he watched the sand push the girl into a tree trunk hard enough to knock her unconscious.

And the birds were chattering crazily all around them unseen.

"I was waiting for her to come clear of you," Gaara said crazily. "Now you get a chance to prove how strong protecting someone makes you. The sand will slowly crush her until she bursts like a sack of blood. The only way to save her is to..."

There was a roar then as Sasuke ripped forward with speed almost like that Naruto was showing and hand wrapped again in white lightning, jabbing the blade deep into Gaara's sand-wrapped monstrous torso.

Sand erupted outward in almost an explosion as Sasuke pulled his hand back out to reveal, not a chaotic crackling lightning like before, but coruscating archs bounding around with an invisible boundary of force that dissipating just moments before the lightning itself did.

Roaring in pain, fury and exhilaration, Gaara whipped around and Sasuke just barely avoided being caught in the counter attack.

He landed beside Naruto then, gripping at his shoulder and panting heavily as the poison continued slowly pushing through his system.

"That got him Sasuke!" Naruto shouted stepping forward.

"Not yet," Sasuke said grimmly as he stared at Gaara.

Gaara's body seemed to be melting around him, but the small trace of blood that had escaped the sand still showed he'd been injured, but the sand was closing that up.

Gaara was still plenty strong enough to fight.

Shikamaru had said that they'd need every heavy hitter they could get to take on Gaara, and Sasuke had to admit that the boy was right.

Hinata, Naruto and him should have been enough, but...

He thought of Hinata's brutal match with Neji and his own less vicious but still intense match with Ryoko.

Naruto was the only one of the three that had entered this fight relatively fresh.

"No wonder they wanted to fight at the end of the chunin exams," Sasuke said grimly.

He winced at a particularly painful burst of pain through his system.

"Yes, they want to rob me of my joy!" Gaara insisted. "They make me fight weakened opponents."

Sasuke glanced back toward Hinata then and back to Naruto. There weren't many people close to Naruto, and Hinata was one of those. And it had been apparent that they were getting closer recently. He understood better than most what the loss of someone dear could do.

"You've got to beat him, Naruto," Sasuke said. "We've weakened him, but you've got to lay out the finishing blow, it's the only way to save Hinata."

"What's wrong with you?" Naruto asked, looking to where Sasuke was clutching at his arm.

"Nothing I can't handle," he insisted.

Gaara lurched forward, lacking his former acrobatics and unleashed a raw burst of inaccurate sand shurikens that still forced Naruto and Sasuke to dance back.

From hiding, the little frog watched cautiously and curiously.

"Who the hell are these guys?" he wondered in a whisper.

"This is getting dangerous," a certain dog noted as well from his own watching place..

Sasuke moved to land after his dodge and felt his chakra fluctuate with his poisoned blood and his foot slipped off the tree where he had landed. He fell backwards towards the forest floor then, frantically twisting himself and using the basics of chi channeling he'd learned that night to bring himself down softer than he would otherwise have managed.

He still slammed into the ground painfully and had to shake his head clear as he struggled to his feet.

"Damn puppeteer," he muttered bitterly. "I'd still be of use if it weren't for this damn poison."

Naruto had watched Sasuke slip and fall with a cry of the other ninja's name and then he heard an unconscious gasp of pain from Hinata still pushed against the tree by the massive hand of sand.

"Hinata-chan," he said, taking three steps toward her, only to be cut off by a flying shuriken of sand slashing into the branch just ahead of him.

"You have to beat me to free her," Gaara declared, calling Naruto's attention.

Naruto whipped around and met the other monster's eyes for a moment and instantly recognized the loneliness and sadness behind those eyes.

He again thought of the differences between him and Gaara.

The differences being friends.

If he failed to stop Gaara, then all his friends would suffer for it when this monster moved to attack the village with the other invaders. Ryoko, Kakashi-sensei, Kiba, Sakura, Sasuke...

...and first it would be Hinata.

Without them, then he'd be just like Gaara was now. They had kept him from turning into a real monster and he was going to be damned if he repaid them by letting them die.

"No way I'm losing to you!" Naruto declared. "I will protect my friends! And I'm going to save Hinata-chan!"

He brought his hands together in a rush of chakra that almost near blinded Sasuke's sharingan before it faded in the last moments.

"What the hell is that?" Sasuke wondered.

And then the forest was full of Narutos seemingly without number.

He paused in his concentration and attempt figure out how to use his chi to clean the poison out of his system and stared with a dropped jaw. As the tree branches above him erupted into a flurry of motion and the echoing sound of punches and kicks in the thousands.

And then it all stopped with an explosion of smoke that revealed a monster hundreds of feet tall.

"A summon of some kind?" Sasuke wondered, wishing that he could see what was going on.

And then a second burst of smoke erupted revealing another orange toad, though this one matching the scale of the sand monster.

"Did...did Naruto summon that?" Sasuke wondered.

Naruto had grown strong to defend his friends, and that included Sasuke. As bitter as it was to be protected.

Sasuke only wished he had something he cared about so much as that. He'd kept himself too separate from others.

He felt a brief twinge of envy and desire to surpass that power, fueled by his own dark desire for revenge, and he knew how he could perhaps get that power.

"Kill your closest friend," his brother had said. "Then you'll have the ultimate power of the sharingan."

And Sasuke had seen the tome that explained the particulars of how that would work.

It would be so easy to kill Naruto, he'd never see it coming.

Sasuke stamped that out quickly.

That wouldn't make him more powerful, it would just be an illusion. Removing someone who had surpassed him and trusted him.

His brother wanted him to become strong so that he would be a worthy vessel to test against...and for other reasons. But Sasuke didn't want to go down that same path Itachi had.

And that was why he kept himself separate. It was best not to have anyone close for the fear of the temptation to kill them.

The tiny dose of poison was still flowing through him, but his body was slowly diluting it and recovering. Maybe he'd be able to help out after all.

He didn't have much stamina left, but perhaps he could do something. Cautiously he started climbing up and watching through gaps in the trees as the giant frog fought the giant sand monster, which was looking something like a raccoon.

Sasuke looked over toward Hinata and saw her starting to stir awake, but the strain in her face was clearly a sign that the sand was indeed crushing her. He frowned but moved on.

The giant frog turned into a thing out of the nightmares of the village's past: the nine-tailed fox and leaped out to latch onto the giant raccoon as Sasuke caught up to the massive fight.

He blinked in surprise and confusion as he saw Gaara sticking out of the top of the monster's head and weaving back and forth like someone drunk or unconscious.

"Now! Boy!" the fox yelled. "Wake him up!"

Naruto leaped out of the fox, which reverted to a frog as soon as he did so, and landed on the top of the sand monster's head. Instantly the skin wrapped up to try to grab onto Naruto's feet and keep him away from the Sand ninja.

Sasuke reached into his weapons pack and smirked as he found a last shuriken.

Naruto struggled against Shukaku's sand desperately, reaching out for the sleeping boy that he had to wake up, but was still no closer to.

And then the shuriken slipped by and slammed into Gaara's shoulder. The body shuddered, the eyes slipped open and a long plaintive cry slipped out of the sand monster as Gaara stared at his newest injury in confusion.

And in that moment no attention was placed on Naruto who was suddenly free to charge up and slam his fist into Gaara's unprotected face over and over.

Behind them Gamabunta rested back, exhausted and vanished himself into smoke, leaving only his massive knife behind.

Then the body of Shukaku fell away in uncontrolled falls of sand itself and two ninja found themselves hurtling down to the ground painfully.

Sasuke grimaced and moved down to see if the battle was still going on, pausing only as he saw Hinata falling free of her prison and catch herself from falling down to the ground herself.

She took a heavy breath and moved to stand up, and Sasuke had to admit that he was now in worse shape than she was, even as the poison was working its way out of his system.

"Sasuke-kun," she noted with a hefty breath, "wh...where's Naruto?"

"I'm heading there now," Sasuke said.

As they were traveling down, Gaara watched, unable to move a single muscle, as his enemy was pulling himself along with just his chin.

"How the hell is this guy so strong?" he wondered.

And then the Hinata girl landed, supporting the Uchiha boy and he wondered if the boy's assertion was correct, he was so strong because he had people he was determined to protect.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata gasped letting Sasuke support himself against a tree as she ran to the blonde's side. "Ar...are you okay?"

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked shakily. "The sand..."

"It fell away just a minute ago," Hinata told him. "Let me help you..."

"Look out!" Pakkun's voice shouted across the field. "The enemy has reinforcements!"

Sasuke turned around, his own beginner's chi sense feeling a stir like what he'd felt in fighting against Ryoko. He turned in time to dodge the first strike from the Musk warrior that appeared out of the tree and then push a line of chi straight into the new attacker's chest.

That Musk coughed up blood and stumbled back, but there were others, and Sasuke was slow in his fatigue. He took down three more attackers before he was slammed himself into a tree and Hinata had moved forward to intercept another set of Musk that had come from the trees.

"This is a great find!" one of them laughed as Sasuke joined the other two boys as someone whose body refused to listen him. "Two of the hosts of the great demons and two scions of the great houses of Konoha! Already brought down for us."

"You won't touch, Naruto-kun!" Hinata said firmly, taking up a shaky stance in front of the blonde.

"This one doesn't look like she's quite down yet," one laughed.

Hinata stepped forward and sliced a line of chakra forward and the musk toppled to the ground next to her. She couldn't perform the full technique, but she could use it in small doses.

Another Musk stepped forward and she didn't have the position to cut him as she had previously, but instead slammed a kick up into his face and used that to put her in a position to send a organ shredding palm strike to the temple of the next.

She'd heard enough of those Musk's words toward Ryoko and heard the rumor of shapechanging water from both Joseibi and that Mokya girl that helped Ryoko's chi-tutor. She didn't want to know, but she could guess what these newest attackers were thinking.

Behind her, she could hear Naruto still trying to push himself to stand up. And out of the corner of her eyes, she watched as Sasuke was doing likewise and Musk were creeping up on both him and the Gaara person that they had been fighting.

She couldn't hold position on all three, or even two, however.

"Forgive me," she thought to herself as she turned her attention back to destroying the knees of another attacker. "I have to defend Naruto-kun."

The first of the Musk charging forward for Gaara stopped in place, standing stock still and letting the other warriors slam into him, dulling the charge.

Further along the group heading for Sasuke were shoved aside but what looked like a independently rolling boulder.

"Hinata-chan!" A female voice called out, its owner landing down in front of Gaara's unresponsive body. "We've got your back!"

"Hey, Sasuke!" the boulder asked as it rolled to a stop and showed itself to be Choji Akimichi. "Never thought I'd be saving you."

Sasuke grimaced bitterly and tried to stand up again, cursing his luck.

"Err, never mind," Choji said nervously as he turned back to wait for more attackers.

Ino glared back over her shoulder briefly before turning back to the Musk ahead of her and grinning evilly as she pushed through a variation of her normal mind switch hand sign.

"Mind Push jutsu!" she shouted, thrusting forward at another incoming Musk.

Once again, the warrior stopped cold in his path, mouth hanging slack jawed as Ino replicated her technique to push the snake into the back of Sakura's mind, this time without putting her own mind out with it.

It gave her about three seconds in which the enemy was incapable of action and she took advantage of it to launch out a kunai which sunk itself in the invader's chest.

Another two kunai were tossed out and easily dodged by the leading ranks, only to explode behind them as the paper bombs attached ignited.

Still, Ino grabbed Gaara's form and pulled him closer to where Hinata was still acting as a living wall.

"Choji! Over here!" Ino shouted.

"Why are you doing this?" Gaara wondered. "I've tried to kill you three times."

"Didn't you hear my reaso..." she paused and stood up, forming her hand seal again and another Musk toppled over as his conscious mind was thrust backwards out of control a few seconds. "...my reason for existing? No one is going to have any monster get at them while I can do something! And that means you monsters too!"

Grimacing with a surge of effort, Ino pulled Gaara up and tossed him behind her to land in a barely mobile clump behind Hinata. At the same time she drew a kunai and leaped over an attack from one of the charging Musk and easily recognized that she didn't have near the taijutsu skill to deal with a fight on this level.

Another pair of Musk came around behind her, trying to cut off her path to join Hinata, and grabbed her by the neck.

Only to watch as Ino vanished into a flurry of leaves and two swirling paper bombs.

Hinata winced briefly as the flash of the explosion washed over her and she had to cover her eyes, though that wasn't much use with the byakugan. A soft sound behind her and her eyes told her that Ino had landed safely at her back.

Choji himself barreled through the few enemies between him and the others to join them and let the very irritated Sasuke down.

"All right!" Ino declared. "Let's get this really started."

Choji tossed a small pill toward Hinata then who caught it up and recognized the food pill before swallowing it.

"Can't I get one of those?" Naruto asked huffing.

"It wouldn't do much good at our condition," Sasuke muttered bitterly.

Hinata found herself still defending a widened area, but it was manageable, especially with Ino lashing out with kunai, shuriken and paper bombs at any given moment or Choji rolling through like a massive bowling ball.

Then the bulk of the musk fell back as three pushed forward. One of them looked very much like bear, another a bit snakish and the last a bit vulpine.

Choji rolled forward to bear them down to the ground and found himself caught solidly by the bear and tossed aside. The bear turned about and pursued the boy at a tremendous speed that Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata recognized as powered by skilled chi use.

It had that characteristic of appearing natural despite how fast it was.

Hinata moved forward to intercept the two remaining musk and found the snakish one jabbing forward with two finger strikes that looked suspiciously like Gentle Fist attacks and were wrapped in the distortion that she'd taken to associating with Ryoko's chi use.

Dodging aside and returning her own attacks, the snakish fighter dodged aside, somewhat slower than his allies. She twisted with a low sweeping roundhouse and found him leaping over it. Grimacing she lashed out with a sharp line of focused chakra and barely managed to cut through the others hair as a similar line cut across her own cheek.

That left Ino to deal with the vulpine warrior and she stepped forward ahead of their recuperating friends armed with a dagger which she swiped at her new foe. He dodged easily and slammed a dismissive blow into Ino's face, bloodying her lip. She slashed out again and added a crescent kick to add to the difficulty and this time was pushed roughly to the ground where she had to get back to her feet quickly.

The bear was almost on top of Choji when he got to his feet and then he barely set himself ready, slamming into the larger warrior's body just at the moment the bear was about to strike him. He met a straight and brutal line of chi but, his own chakra was also enhancing his thrust forward.

Both of them paused and shook their heads clear.

Hinata was used to facing Chao Jin and Shi Jin from sparring against Ryoko. She knew what it looked like to her byakugan and she had at least a hint of how it was produced.

"You are a strong one," the snakish one said smirking. "You're children will be strong too."

The vulpine musk snorted irritably as it virtually walked over to where Ino had landed and ripped her up to standing by the short pony tail the girl with the mismatched eyes had.

"I just got some of the length back..." Ino whined with a trace of pain.

"Vanity now, chakra-wielder?" the vulpine musk wondered.

In response, Ino reached up to cut her kunai through her hair. The musk snorted derisively as the hair scattered about, until it pulled in around him and tightened into a paralyzing rope.

Ino instantly found herself released and now it was her turn to slowly take up stance and smirk at her opponent dismissively as she formed a hand sign.

"Say good bye, bastard," Ino snapped as she took in a breath and leveled her kunai for the best impact on the bound Musk.

As soon as she thrust her kunai into the enemy's throat, she pulled it out again, wrapped one of the smaller paper bombs around the kunai and tossed it across the field of battle into the back of Choji's opponent.

A few seconds later, it exploded, not strong enough to break the bear-like man's skin, but enough to set him off balance and let Choji take control of their match, slamming him down to the ground and then whirling into the human boulder technique to flatten the man completely.

Distracted, the snakish musk, turned away from Hinata just long enough for the Hyuuga to thrust two palm strikes into the man's chest wrapped so thick in chakra that it was just barely visible as a blue haze.

Ino turned to look toward the remaining Musk past Hinata and Choji.

Behind the three, Naruto, Gaara and Sasuke had finally recovered their breath and, with a wary glance toward each other, stood up slowly and two of them took a stance while the third simply crossed his arms.

It was still mostly bluff, but a bluff that couldn't be disregarded.

"Do you want to keep at it?" Ino asked stepping forward as she reached into one of her several weapon holsters. "Because I've got a lot more."

She held out her hands to show kunai hanging from her fingers. Each of the kunai appeared to be wrapped with a paper bomb.

"Ino-chan..." Hinata said cautiously.

The remaining Musk glanced toward each other and looked down toward their slaughtered officers, and then turned and ran.

"You better run!" Ino shouted out after them, throwing out one kunai and watching as it exploded will behind them, but still managed to encourage the Musk to leave faster.

As they were left in a quiet moment, all eyes turned to look at Gaara who was staring at Ino intently.

"What are you staring at?" Ino asked.

"The victor," he said simply.


	35. Resolutions

Tsume had intended to move forward and take on the bear, the obvious leader of this group, but found herself stymied. Three of the new enemies had put themselves in her and Kuromaru's way. It wasn't that they were all that skilled, but they worked together well and moved quickly.

When she moved to help out the younger warriors, she found herself harried and cut off until she had to focus on the the three.

And when she focused on the three, they backed off away from her and retreated tauntingly drawing her away from their leader and putting other enemies between her and them.

"Say!" one of the agile little creeps called out as Tsume tried again to push through again to join the younger ones.

She paused her run and through out an arm to the side, nodding to Kuromaru as she did so. The black, wolf-like dog leaped over her and twisted about to aim for the one of the three that had called out.

Meanwhile, another of the trio skidded almost to a stop in order to avoid the clothesline that Tsume had thrown up after his brother had called out. He spent so much focus on that hand that he didn't notice the woman stepping about and whipping the arm back forward as her leg slashed out in a fierce donkey kick.

It would have slammed into the lithe musk had the third brother not leaped forward and pushing him out of the way of the strike.

"Good one, Cap," Say said. "I think she almost had me."

Both of them retreated as Tsume turned about to pursue them and jumped ahead of her as she looked to abandon their fight again to help the younger warriors.

"Cin! Can't you handle that dog?" Cap demanded as the first of the trio let himself be pursued about and tried a bit too hard to stay ahead of Kuromaru's gnashing teeth.

"Kuromaru's no ordinary dog," Tsume assured them as they landed in her path again.

Hana and the three Haimaru brothers were experiencing similar problems with higher numbers of less exceptional opponents. Hana was primarily a veternarian, but she hadn't reached her rank for no reason.

It had left Ryoko, Kiba and Akamaru to face that bear of an opponent, with Joseibi to protect between them.

The bear wasn't as slow as he looked, which made him still a lot slower than either Kiba, Ryoko or Akamaru. It was like Tsume's problem in reverse.

The bear pushed forward aiming at grabbing Ryoko's long pony tail, and grimaced as the girl whipped her hair out of the man's grip and ducked down as Kiba launched past her and clawed out with a series of sharp swipes that seemed to do little more than draw trickles of blood out of the bear-man.

Ryoko lashed in low as the musk's attention was diverted toward Kiba and twirled in a spin to draw a circular line of chi through the air and slam it into the back of their enemy's leg. She frowned as the bear simply pushed his leg forward, accepting the flow and moving with it.

Akamaru, in Kiba's shape, slammed a foot into the man's face and leaped away to land beside Kiba as the Inuzuka dodged underneath a pounding fist that left an impact crater in the wall next to him.

Ryoko started to make a move against the open side of the Musk leader's side when a pair of kunai flashed past her into the bear's side. Glancing over her shoulder to follow the direction of the throw, she saw Joseibi looking for more weapons amongst the fallen enemies.

"Imouto-chan! Stay out of this," she called out.

Immediately she wished she hadn't.

"Imouto..." the large man noted with a leering smile. "A sister then."

He leaped up into the air and came down between them and Joseibi reaching out to grab for the blonde girl.

"Crap," Joseibi shouted as she flashed through a series of hand signs desperately.

The Musk faced the same vulnerability to chakra illusions as Ryoko did and Joseibi's even student level of genjutsu floated into him and he paused as he wondered how he'd gotten back into the air and where Joseibi had gone as he relived the last two seconds of his memory and the blonde darted around him for the clear.

The genjutsu was ending just as the gatsuga came in, two spinning drills of chakra-fueled power slamming into him from either side. He felt them coming and managed to avoid one of the two attacks, but was scored along the side enough to draw grimace by the other.

A frantic, scared looking Ryoko with flaming eyes landed next, coming down out of the air with a heavy wave of chi borne of speed and gravity behind her. He stepped lightly out of her way as she slammed into the ground in front of him, placing her own crater into the street as she did so.

The bear sneered and swung downward to smash Ryoko flat. The dark-haired girl rolled out from under his attack, pressing her hands flat and pushing her feet straight up as she came between his legs.

Howling in pain as a straight line of hard muscle, bone and chi slammed between the thing most Musk prized above everything else, the bear still managed to thrust a knee outward, colliding with Ryoko and sending her into flying hard into one of the walls.

Kiba cursed and looked aside to confirm that Ryoko was still moving and then he and Akamaru pushed forward themselves against the distracted Musk leader.

The first fang of the Gatsuga slammed into the enemy and tore up his side, but the bear-man met the next attack with a powerful chi-wrapped fist that slammed into Kiba and stopped his rotation cold as he was sent flying backwards to fly into the wall and land next to Ryoko.

"Onechan!" Joseibi shouted, rushing over to where Ryoko bounced off the wall. "Kiba!"

"I am f...fine, Imouto-chan," Ryoko said, flipping up to her feet uncertainly.

"That bastard can hit," Kiba said with a grimace as he rolled to standing.

"Sta..." Ryoko started to say before her eyes widened and she zipped forward past her younger sister.

The huge chunk of rubble their enemy had thrown crashed into her with an explosion of rocky dust and debris. The Musk smiled, expecting the already fatigued fighter to be laid out unconscious behind the cloud of shattered rock.

He didn't expect a small orange piece of apparently living flame to leap out of it and land atop of his shoulder.

As Ryoko's feet touched him, he screamed out in shock and pain as the girl slammed a fist into the space between the Musk's shoulder and neck.

The Musk retaliated again, reaching up to grab at the much smaller girl, only for her to roll back down behind his back, come to her feet and run around his waist as if walking on a tree and slashing a crescent kick upward into the man's chin.

As she moved, the orange fires of her Kishu-Osore caught on his tunic and a sickly purple thread pushed itself way through the flames.

Kiba watched with his mouth open a few seconds as Ryoko literally walked all over her enemy, leaving burning prints and slamming attacks in whenever she could. The bear-like man was easily four or five times Ryoko's size, giving her plenty of territory to run about, but she couldn't possibly keep this sort of thing up for long.

Sure enough, the man managed to lay hold of her, burning his hand as he grabbed her, and tossed her out away from into the mass of the Musk and Sound ninja that were harassing the elder Inuzuka.

Ryoko landed on her feet, one hand down to the ground for balance and immediately started forward, eyes focused entirely on the large bear-like man that had almost crushed her younger sister.

Three people rose up in front of her, but barely noticed them long enough to slash and arc of flame carrying chi around herself to immolate one of the three and then stab a spear hand wrapped in flame into the chest of the next, crushing the ribs beneath her hand. The last found himself born into the ground at the end of a flipping heel strike and then Ranma was clear, barely aware of the pain she left the three underlings in.

Cap, Say and Cin paused momentarily to watch Ryoko's path through those three lesser Musk and a handful of other eliminated Sound ninja and Musk warrior.

"Okay, that's hot," Say noted, shaking his head in appreciation as his brother's nodded. "Think she'd go ou...oh right...we don't do the dating thing any more."

And then they remembered they'd been fighting a jonin.

Or rather, they were forcefully reminded that they had been fighting a jonin as Tsume and Kuromaru ruthlessly took advantage of their distraction.

Kiba and Akamaru hadn't been idle meanwhile. As the two came together, a mass of smoke erupted over them before vanishing away and revealing a massive two-headed dog which immediately snapped outward with speed much greater than most would have expected from a creature so large.

The bear-like man lifted up an arm only to have caught in the fangs of one head as the paws of the body pushed him down and a snapping pair of jaws pushed in to finish him off.

The combination form ate a lot of stamina and chakra however, and it wasn't completely perfected yet. The Musk was pushing the snapping jaws up away from him and had just about reached his knees when the tip of a flaming wooden sword stabbed up and through his abdomen. An ugly tracery of purple darkening to black pushed up through his skin out from the wound even as the distraction gave Kiba the ability to reach in and tear out the man's throat.

Kiba and Akamaru separated as they jumped back to watch the dark chi tear apart the dead Musk's body bit by bit. It was carried ahead by the orange chakra fire that came out Ryoko's Kishu-Osore, devouring the whole body and leaving a tracery of blackish dust to hang in the air.

"O..onechan," Joseibi said nervously.

Her sister twisted her head around to look at Joseibi and Kiba and they could see the blisters starting to form on her face. Ryoko herself didn't seem to calm down this time, but to turn about to look for more enemies after confirming that the people she was protecting were fine.

Her legs refused at first to do what she want, and her knee buckled with the first step before she instinctively put the chi to work to support her body in the action she wanted to persist in.

Kiba moved around in front of her, arm outstretched.

"Ryoko-chan," Kiba said trying to convince her to stop.

The Saotome wordlessly jumped over Kiba, eyeing the enemies between them and Kiba's family, as well as the other enemies swarming in from other directions.

Joseibi ran forward herself and took a deep breath before rushing through her hand signs and using the one other genjutsu she knew, carried along on a simple whistling song into her sister's ears.

Ryoko paused briefly as a brief surge of wild happiness stole into her mind just long enough to break the technique's hold on her, and then she toppled forward limply as the fires left from around her body.

Akamaru reached Ryoko first, nuzzling her passed out form cautiously, but Kiba and Joseibi were not far behind. Kiba was quick to check Ryoko's vitals and breathed a sigh of relief on find that she didn't seem to be in immediate danger.

Tsume looked down at her son holding Ryoko and smirked, before glancing back around at the enemies turned cautious around them.

"I think she's going to be fine," Kiba said before looking up and catching the expressions on his mother's and sister's faces. "What?"

"I approve, Kiba," Tsume said simply.

Hana pushed Joseibi into the center of their defensive circle and chuckled as she did so.

"What?" Kiba asked.

"Wait, Onechan and Kiba?" the blonde girl asked incredulously.

The Musk and a few Sound ninja were still watching from the allies and rooftops as they got ready to attack again. One of the more eager Musk on the nearby roofs leaped up into the air intending to come down in the middle of the Konoha's circle. Several others from his perch leaped into the air behind him.

They never landed.

Forms blurred down out of the sky and intercepted the attackers in mid flight, grabbing them with clawed feet and tossing them into the air where another of the newcomers grabbed them again. This second catch was followed with the Musk being run through bay a blade in their captor's hands.

Figures with a variety of wide wings alighted on the tops of the buildings and swooped down through the streets to reinforce the Konoha defensive circle.

"Who the hell?" one of the Sound ninja asked before he was snatched up into the sky carried high aloft by one of these bird coming to help the Konoha ninja.

"It looked like you had things handled," one of the winged people said without looking behind him toward the Inuzuka and Joseibi. "But we thought we'd interfere for the sake of the young one."

"Yeah, well who the heck are you and where did you come from?" Tsume demanded stepping forward with Kuromaru and cracking her knuckles.

"Phoenix," one of the Musk said shakily as he watched the human-seeming faces turning to look at him and his comrades.

"We're neighbors to your current problem," the Phoenix man said.

* * *

Temari winced as she rolled out of the way of one of her attackers. The man's fist slammed into the tree, sending a shower of splinters into his face.

Coming back to her feet, Temari leaped away and whipped out her fan to send a handful of the quicker enemy flying back and away from her. She landed with a panting breath and visibly straightened her posture.

One of the Musk slammed hard into a tree and fell down motionlessly, but it didn't give the Suna shinobi much of a lift.

Fresh, she probably could have torn into these guys like no one's business, but she was having to pace herself and fight a running battle.

Not too far away, she'd the rising of Shukaku and the shock and terror of that had frozen her just long enough to lose a chance to escape her pursuers and get clear.

Still, she'd cut down the opponents by three over the past five minutes of, not quite cat and mouse, more like fox and hounds.

That only seemed to make the freaks more interested.

And what had then been about allies? She hadn't heard anything about anybody besides the Sound and the Sand being involved in this action. Certainly not a bunch of perverted barbarians.

They were creeping up on her side and she lashed outward, sending a twisting scythe of wind through to one side and forcing the enemy there to dodge aside.

She smirked humorlessly as another of the group failed to dodge out of the way fast enough and was slashed open before falling to the ground.

Temari tried to move again and felt some of the injuries from her earlier fall and fight with the Konoha clones. She'd been pushing herself to ignore them as much as possible, but her stamina and chakra were both reaching near their end.

One knee, out of a combination of injury and fatigue, gave out underneath her, sending her into a heavy and painful stumble. Getting up, using her fan as a prop, she turned about and looked to see her enemy moving in on her both cautiously and confidently.

"Who the hell are you people," she demanded.

"We're the Musk," the largest of them said. "For thousands of years, we've collected the strongest creatures and warriors to dip in the pool of drowned girl that they might become wives and their strength could become ours. You have the potential to be a strong warrior."

"I'm not interested in a proposal from any of you," Temari said reaching her feet wearily and unfolding her fan again.

It was all bravado, she could barely move.

"This is not an honor you're allowed to refuse," one of them said.

They all started to move in on her and...

...and she dodged out of the way and climbed swiftly up the side of the tree she was on.

Temari blinked, wondering what the heck was going on with her. Was she so tired now that she was doing things without thinking about them?

"You really are a very troublesome girl," a familiar snide voice said.

She felt herself walking around the tree and found herself coming face to face with her opponent from earlier. She knew what this feeling was now and glanced down towards her feet to see the dark shadow that attached her Shikamaru.

"You!" Temari snapped.

"Me," Shikamaru said shrugging like an old man opening up the joints.

Temari thought about their match earlier and wondered if her captor/rescuer had enough chakra to do anything else.

"Another ninja?" the musk below asked as they started to come up into the trees. "Well, doesn't make much diff..."

"Actually, two other ninjas," Shikamaru noted simply.

The largest of the musk turned about as he felt something coming at him from the chi flows and barely had time to let up a block as a pair of trench knives slashed in at them.

Temari felt the shadow power slip away from her and almost fell off the tree where she stood, only to be caught by Shikamaru as they both watched Asuma tear through the surrounding Musk so easily that it made the Sand genin's jaw drop.

"That's not how you treat a lady," Shikamaru said idly. "Didn't their parents teach them anything?"

"Why the hell are you helping me?" Temari asked as Shikamaru caught her fan before it could fall out of her hand. "I'm you're enemy."

"And we're going to very politely put you in a cell pretty soon," the younger genin said as he slowly walked them down to the bottom of the forest floor. "But that doesn't mean turning over our prisoner to a bunch of kidnappers."

"Well, Shikamaru," Asuma said as he dispatched the last of the enemy. "Are you finished saving the girl?"

"I'm apprehending a prisoner," Shikamaru protested.

Asuma smirked and pointed toward the way Shikamaru was carrying Temari, which was something like a bridal carry.

"Put me down," Temari demanded sharply, more fed up with the teasing that Shikamaru was. "I can walk."

Shikamaru grumbled and obliged, setting Temari down on her feet once they hit the ground. She managed two feet before her legs gave out again.

"Damn it," she muttered.

* * *

* * *

Sakura, at least part of her, wished that she could shut her eyes as she completed the hand sign that opened the door in her mind. Instantly, she felt charged-up and the feelings of aggression and eagerness to hunt flooded through her awareness.

This time, however, instead of getting in the way, she let it have it's lead.

Kurumi frowned as she felt the change in the chi out of the young girl that had come with Kodachi and the older Konoha ninja. It had dwindled to something of a trickle, which implied that her chakra was churning a bit heavily.

Then the girl jumped ahead, fast for a fighter her age, viciously and efficiently killing the first of the Musk she met with not a trace of remorse or hesitation before looking on for the next target. In the process she ducked under and around an attack from another Musk before slicing into them.

"Damn it," Anko said. "Maybe should have held off on that."

The older ninja moved to support the girl summoning snakes and tossing out senbon needles as they waded through the lesser soldiers of the Musk.

Kurumi saved it for later, wondering if it was some sort of chakra technique that she didn't know about, right now she had her own issues.

After the two resurrected Hokage, a bunch of Musk was relatively easy.

She calmly intercepted an incoming strike and toppled the Musk behind it with one arm. Her other arm intercepted a warrior trying to jump past her toward where Kodachi was recovering. She tossed that warrior into a third while clipping a fourth with a roundhouse that sent him sprawling away.

On the other side of Kodachi, Gai was similarly performing well. A trio of Musk were scattered by his Leaf Hurricane kicks and a third had his chest caved in by a punch. He ducked as a projectile of some kind flew out from the enemy and he easily ducked aside, frowning as he noted that it seemed to be a water balloon.

Kodachi standing up flinched as the balloon struck her in the back and the water washed all over her, apparently doing nothing.

"Don't waste the drowned girl water on the ones that are already girls!" someone shouted.

"Drown..." Gai wondered.

"Cursed water! You're the only one here that needs to worry about it," Kurumi shouted over her shoulder. "Well you and all these Musk."

"Oh?" Gai asked as another water balloon flew his way.

Out of curiosity, he snatched one out of the air and started to toss it back at the Musk in front of him. He arched a confused eyebrow and then tossed the balloon back behind him.

This time, Kodachi caught it easily.

Sakura was amazed again at how fluidly she was moving now with the snake slipping about in her mind and out of its door. She could feel it's presence slithering about her thoughts, trying to pull her tight as it destroyed the enemies that threatened both her and it.

Or was she the snake. Was the snake a part of her the way as the other spirit she was told about and could sometimes feel.

That made her a bit uncomfortable.

A Musk reached out to grab her and she reacted by plunging forward into its chest, leading with her kunai and then ripping it out. That left her vulnerable as she pulled back and Sakura found herself ducking underneath a double fisted blow and then leaping away from another attack.

She was trying to get clear to make another attack from, she knew it.

What did it say when she had to guess at her own tactics.

This...this berserker state scared the hell out of her.

A burst of pain slipped through her body as she was kicked off her feet by an opponent she hadn't seen, and then slammed down into the ground rather sharply.

She would have been swarmed soon after, but for the fact that Anko was close behind. One of her attackers was quickly wrapped up in four snakes as several others were peppered with senbon needles into vital areas.

Sakura reached her feet as Anko came up beside her and immediately the pink-haired girl was looking for another target despite the new bruise working up the side of her body.

The pink haired girl wanted to say thank you, but wasn't able to do that as her body simply continued trying to fight the battle.

"You're welcome, Sakura," Anko said as three Musk fell to her needles.

Sakura couldn't tell if it was an admonishment, sarcasm or an acknowledgment of the pink haired girl's situation.

There were several targets to choose from, but Sakura knew what she wanted when she saw one of their enemies trying to make use of a gap between the coverage of the two that had been tearing up the area when they'd arrived.

Anko grumbled a bit under her breath as Sakura zipped away from her position back towards Kodachi.

The Black Rose felt the enemy coming but was too tired to do much about it, however, she could stumble aside and let the incoming ninja have a clear path.

The Musk was surprised to suddenly have a pink-haired monster in his face, and he spent the last couple of seconds of life wondering what a twelve year-old girl thought she was going to do him.

Anko stepped back away from her flank, fighting her way back closer to the woman they were protecting and where Sakura was already looking for another target.

The snake-woman looked about them, Kurumi and Gai were pretty much covering every hole that Anko thought she could see. And didn't look like they had much trouble taking up any slack, but they still had four people trying to protect a fifth on open ground against a large force.

"Pull back," a voice declared and the Musk stepped away from the fight, leaving Kurumi, Kodachi and the Konoha ninja to pull back away from the fight.

With the exception of Sakura who pursued her prey regardless of the apparent truce being called. She pounced on the back of one Musk and was about to stab down into the enemy's body when a large, red-haired man kicked upward into her face too quickly for her to react even with the extra speed she had in this state of mind.

The pink-haired girl flew backwards, her head snapping back and she landed clumsily and just barely preventing a potentially lethal landing.

"Sakura!" Anko called out with a grimace as she moved toward where the girl was already trying to lash out. "Damn it."

As Sakura started to shuffle forward despite her assorted injuries, Anko flashed through a fail-safe hand sign. The snake-leash seal on Sakura's forehead, under the ribbon she was wearing, slammed closed painfully.

The dark-haired special jonin was at the girl's side as she briefly screamed aloud from the abrupt closing.

"You alright kid?" Anko asked.

Weakly, Sakura nodded and let herself be pulled back away from the enemy. She recovered slightly, but was now feeling the injuries that the snake hadn't been caring about.

"I'm fine, Anko-sensei," Sakura said as she straightened and took up stance again.

"I'm guessing you're Lord Hops?" Kurumi asked as she stepped forward.

"This isn't your problem, Mistress Kurumi of the Redeemed School," the man said stepping forward and towering over her. "This is an Musk matter. We'll seek you out later."

"Kodachi is a disciple of the Redeemed School," Kurumi reminded him.

"And you're attacking my village of Konoha," Gai said grimmly. "You've negated your argument."

Lord Hops looked between the Master and the jonin and measured his chances, remembering how he had defeated Herb before.

He'd had to resort to trickery and ambush. Herb had extreme levels of raw power and the mind set of a master. Only Saffron was stronger and only Ranma, Happosai and Cologne had more mastery.

That was the thing, a master could be surprised and it would make a heavy difference. A grandmaster...it was hard to tell whether they were ever surprised. For them, being ready was as natural as breathing.

He could be considered a master, but facing one of the five Redeemed School masters and a jonin of Konoha at the same time.

There was a reason he'd never allowed Herb a situation where the dragon-princess felt she was free to challenge him.

The two most powerful of the enemies facing him stepped forward, intent to engage him obvious in their eyes.

"I challenge Kodachi Kuno, Disciple of the Redeemed School to a match to the death," he declared.

Kurumi cursed as she came to a short stop and Gai stopped as well as he looked back toward the woman he'd been fighting with.

"Isn't that one of your rules?" Hops demanded. "That no one of your school can refuse a challenge."

"That's not way it..."

Kodachi stepped forward then shakily and laid a hand on Kurumi's shoulder, patting the other woman.

"Kodachi-sama," Kurumi said in a lecturing tone. "If this is about Gimu, you don't have to..."

Kodachi didn't seem to listen to her as she stepped forward.

"...always been arrogant," Kurumi muttered.

"What is this situation?" Gai asked. "You can't really expect her to face this man on her own. I am aware of her talent, but she is not yet to our level and her handicap."

"He challenged, she's obviously accepted," the other martial artist said. "Interfering now..."

She left it hanging and Gai nodded with a frown. He could somewhat understand, though he wouldn't expect such challenges would extend to a full battlefield.

"This is crazy," Sakura said, most of her breath returned as she stepped forward to watch the blind woman.

Kodachi stopped some space ahead of the others and brushed herself off with a hint of aristocratic disdain for accumulated dust.

"Are you ready outsider witch?" Hops asked as he cracked his knuckles. "You should have stayed in your little cage and left it alone. Now you'll have to face a sterner punishment for your interference with out laws."

Kodachi pointedly twisted her head about to gesture toward the Musk around Lord Hops and then back towards the people behind her.

Hops followed her look and laughed as he did so.

"Of course, you're worried as to whether or..." he started to say smugly.

The smugness remained as he tsked and reached out to deflect the projectile he'd caught Kodachi throwing his way out of the corner of his eye. The back of his hand caught the object in the middle of it's path and started to push it forward in a different direction.

Then the object burst open and a fine scattering of water splashed over him.

Gai stared in amazement as the man before him shrunk by a foot or more into a much slimmer and more curvy form. He...or rather she...was still tall and muscular, but also very clearly female.

"Wh...what did you do?" Hops-chan demanded loudly as she looked down at herself.

And as the newly cursed Musk tried to figure out what was going on and what had gone wrong...Kodachi stepped forward and slapped the woman hard across one cheek with the back of her hand, enhanced by an arc of chi that Kurumi could see.

The impact shook the disoriented and uncentered Hops stumbling aside and she was just just coming back into control when the palm of Kodachi's hand struck from the other direction, also with a supporting arc of chi.

And finally, with a deep breath and a punch so simple and basic that it was clearly a deliberate display of disrespect, Kodachi slammed all the chi she could muster in one breath of channeling straight in between Hops' eyes.

The various Musk stared in shock as their leader toppled over his...her feet backwards and fell back unconscious, attention and focus completely ruined by the suddenness of something that Hops had never even thought about happening.

Given that these were among those Musk warriors most enamored of the old ways, most of the more modern thinking warriors having died in the coup, and amongst some of the least likely or able to threaten Hops' rule, it was fairly understanding that the idea of claiming their own former leader was appealing.

They started to move forward to the attack again, but hesitated as Kodachi raised her hand palm out in such an imperial manner that the habitually obedient warriors stopped where they were.

And then Kodachi pointed up, drawing several eyes in that direction as several phoenix landed about the field.

"Okay," Kurumi said. "I should know better than to expect Kodachi to play fair."

* * *

* * *

Mokya grimaced as she placed herself between the bug-user and another Musk. This was followed up with another amaguriken across the enemy's torso. She'd lost some focus and accuracy in that last one.

It wasn't the chi, even with Kodachi's spell fading, there was plenty of yang to be had this far up in the open sunny air. But there was a limit to how long the body could efficiently channel chi and bear the increased paces. As it was, she was spending as much time refocusing her flow of chi to repair muscle tears and ease fatigue. She'd been going at a heavy pace, and it was starting to tell on her efficiency.

Meanwhile, Shino's bugs were having the same trouble that Jirobo had earlier against her. These enemies didn't use chakra and their normal method of attacking was not as useful. Instead, Shino had started reluctantly allowing his bugs to attack more physically.

It wasn't something they were heavily adapted to, being that they fed on chakra, not meat.

As such, Mokya had started to act as a buffer between the bug-user and the enemies. It was doubly effective since she was more of a target for them than anything else on the rooftop.

However, there were a large number of powerful warriors here, and they were keeping things too chaotic for the Anbu to help the Hokage against Orochimaru.

They were running out of time.

"You're failing, Orochimaru," the Hokage said panting as he looked around the village from the vantage point of the arena's rooftop.

Everywhere he looked, the sounds and sights of battle were fading away and the Village still stood.

"I can still kill you, old man," Orochimaru said frowning irritably. "You're still falling apart at the seams and either you'll tear yourself up or I will long before your precious Leaf ninja arrive to help you."

He smiled darkly at that sight and pressed forward against the ailing Hokage, well aware that his analysis was correct.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's time was limited, and this fight had done nothing but hasten that fact.

All Orochimaru had to do was hasten that end a little bit more directly.

Sarutobi grimaced as he readied himself to try and deflect this newest attack, not having the energy left to fully dodge aside.

And then a barrage of chains slammed down in between the Hokage and Orochimaru.

The snake sannin leaped backward as tall man with thick glasses landed upon the roof and his chains vanished back into the robes of his sleeves. A moment later, a winged woman touched down beside him, leveling a hard glare at Orochimaru.

"Landling," she said. "You should respect your elders."

"Lord Hokage," the man with the long dark hair said. "We represent the Phoenix People in pursuit of these traitorous Musk, but if you don't mind us getting involved..."

"Hmph," Orochimaru said bitterly. "I suppose I shall have to continue this conversation another day."

He called out to his white-dressed Sound Four and in quick order, they were fleeing the battle field along with their unconscious numbers. They left the Musk behind to cover their escape even as they vannished from sight against the attempts of the other arriving Phoenix warriors to capture them.

Once the Snake Sannin had left, things began to settle down.

* * *

* * *

Lee lucked down morosely at the body of the woman before him. He'd tried to warn her and help her out of the area of battle. Hoping that he could at least do one thing to help the battle for Konoha.

Instead, the woman had snapped bitterly that she didn't need any help from such commoners as he obviously was, and she made sure to make obvious for him.

Lee had noticed the enemy ninja homing in on the loud angry woman he was trying to help, but he hadn't been physically capable of doing anything about much more than the first three kunai before the fourth buried itself in her lung and she toppled forward.

Hiashi Hyuuga had arrived on the scene shortly afterward and prevented Lee from joining the woman on the ground.

The crippled young man sat down next to the old woman and marveled when he found her still alive.

"Is everything all right, boy?" Hiashi asked over his shoulder in a tone of voice that could have been dismissive.

"We need a medic here!" Lee declared.


	36. Aftermath

Sakura checked her ribbon and glasses before she stepped up to join the small crowd of medic apprentices in the back. She was doing her best to not be noticed, but the medics were all ninja, mostly a handful of years older than she was.

A rustling of whispers came as the other apprentices started to step away from her and glance back cautiously and brought her to the attention of the medic organizing the apprentices.

"Haruno," the man said cautiously. "What are you doing here?"

"It's Konoha emergency medical procedure for any medical apprentice to report after a disaster or invasion," she said firmly, feeling both defiant and nervous at once.

"Of course it is," was the response as he checked the scroll in front of him. "Weren't you transferred?"

"I'm training under Anko Mitarashi," Sakura confirmed. "I'm still required..."

"She'll be reporting to the Anbu interrogation squad," the organizer said. "I'm sure they'll need a medic."

"H..hai," Sakura said before bowing and walking away.

Sakura glared back once over her shoulder, entertaining some thoughts of what she could do to these jerks and felt a bit vindicated to see the organizer seemed to get a bit nervous at the look.

"I have to stop thinking that way," Sakura told herself. "Or just stop holding back."

But then she'd stay sealed forever because there was no way Anko would let her leash go if...

"...no, no I don't want to hurt people I don't have to. Not unless they're trying to hurt me first. I mean really hurt me."

It wasn't long before she was coming up to where Anko was reporting to her superiors. The conversation paused as she approached and Anko turned to look toward her.

"They sent you here, kid?" Anko asked, unsurprised.

"Yes, Anko-sensei," Sakura said bitterly. "They said the interrogation unit could use a medic."

"We have a few medics," Ibiki said firmly, looking down at Sakura with not so much caution, but disapproval. "Anko, this one is your responsibility."

"I got that, Ibiki," Anko promised firmly. "Don't worry, Sakura-chan, he's still a bit bent out of shape over your sneaking into the chunin exams."

"She didn't sneak in, she was snuck in," the head of the interrogation unit reminded Anko. "She's in a deep hole as far as earning respect from me goes."

"I know that," Sakura said. It was supposed to sound meek, but it came out sounding more hostile.

Ibiki narrowed his eyes at the pink-haired girl.

"Right part forward, Sakura," Anko said under her breath. "I'll watch her, don't worry about it. Come on, Sakura, we've got a VIP to see to."

She handed the pink-haired kunoichi a small injection vial.

"What's this?" Sakura asked.

"It makes people friendlier," Anko explained. "Make sure she doesn't notice you giving it to her."

The VIP was a blond girl only a few years older than Sakura with a headband from Suna. It took a moment, but Sakura recognized her as Shikamaru's opponent in the tournament, mostly because Shikamaru and Asuma were standing nearby.

"Oi, Asuma-sempai," Anko called out loudly as they approached. "I'm supposed to take your report before we take charge of the girl. Sakura, see what you can do for her."

"Right, Anko-sensei," Sakura said moving to kneel down at the other girl's side.

"You're a medical ninja?" Temari asked as the pink-haired ninja started taking in her surface injuries.

"I'm an apprentice," Sakura said quickly as she pulled Temari's leg straight a bit too quickly.

"Aww!" Temari shrieked as the pain shivered up through her and she failed to notice the sharp prick under the base of her knee.

"Hey, Sakura-chan," Anko said, pausing her interview. "Leave the torture to the experts and just make sure she's good to answer questions."

"Hai, Anko-sensei," Sakura said without sounded either like relief or disappointment.

Temari was disturbed that she wasn't able to tell which, but it came with a sort of dizzy, content feeling.

Off to the side, she saw Shikamaru watching Sakura with caution rather than her, and suddenly wondered what sort of person they'd sent to treat her. Was this how Konoha trained their interrogators? Being medics to captured enemies?

As merely an apprentice, Sakura was more able to tell what wasn't a problem than narrow it down to specifics. The various surface bruises, cuts and scrapes were easy to diagnose and identify. There was at least one cracked rib and probably a few bone-deep bruises. Mostly she just seemed exhausted to point of collapse.

Idly, Sakura pulled back and brought her hands up to her mouth to lick the blood off without even thinking about it.

"Did you just lick my blood off your fingers?" Temari asked cautiously, as the image of Sakura seemed to be warping just in front of her.

Sakura flinched as she realized what she was doing and then considered that she was talking to an enemy prisoner. As casually as she could, she lifted up her sunglasses to reveal the white scaling along her brows and the green, slitted eyes she now had.

"Finger licking good," Sakura said with a smile as she over-dramatically finished cleaning the blood off of her hands.

"Err, Sakura..." Shikamaru said, stepping forward slightly.

"Experts, Sakura-chan," Anko called over her shoulder.

"Right, sorry, Anko-sensei," Sakura said, putting her glasses back in place. "I don't think anything serious is wrong, but..."

"That's good enough," Anko said, turning completely away from Asuma. "Okay, here's the deal, little miss Sand princess. The word from Hokage is this. Until proven otherwise, we're assuming it was Orochimaru giving the orders from disguise. So, until then, we're 'questioning a witness', okay?"

Temari looked from Anko to Sakura and the other Konoha in hearing range and saw that for the most part everyone looked surprised at this announcement, including the over-eager blood-thirsty medical apprentice at her side.

"Sorry to disappoint, little snake," Temari thought to herself as she took in Sakura's expression.

"So we're going to need a time frame on when orders came," Anko said. "When did you first get the orders that this wasn't just a chunin exam?"

"About a wee..." Temari stopped as she figured out what she had just said.

She could blame the fatigue and the sudden relief she'd felt at being categorized a witness, but the truth was that she'd just given information to the enemy, even if it was just the timing of an order.

"A week ago," Anko said clearly, nodding and smiling. "She we go from there?"

"I think..." Temari said nervously.

"Ah, hold it," the special jonin said. "What am I thinking, let's get you inside to some privacy before we ask anymore questions."

Temari's eyes widened as she looked around to see various other Sand and Sound ninja watching her. A pair of Konoha Anbu started moving in toward her, not moving especially hostilely. In fact, they were approaching in a fairly friendly manner. And some of her countrymen were watching that posture.

"Oh no," Temari said, trying to stand up only to fall back down. "I don't want."

"Sakura-chant, make sure our guest doesn't hurt herself," Anko said in a clear tone that seemed to belong to a careless shinobi in the wake of successful battle.

"Right," Sakura said, a bit confused as she moved around behind Temari and held her shoulders just tightly enough to hold her in place.

"Asuma-sempai," Anko said, "I think we've got it from here."

"All right," Asuma said casually as he gestured for Shikamaru to follow him.

Shikamaru watched the interchange of what was going on frowned as he watched the somewhat helpless look on Temari's face. All in all, he couldn't say that she didn't deserve it. After all,she had been part of an invasion force, but it still wasn't pleasant.

Temari tried to protest, but couldn't gather the will she needed to say anything and instead just let herself be led away. Being treated very much like a VIP until she was put into a small, but relatively comfortable room.

Where Anko decided to sit down and started to talk to her.

"That was a very good match you two had in the final rounds," Anko started to say, much to Sakura's confusion.

"I lost," Temari noted.

"You're being modest," Anko said eagerly. "It was a clever show of strategies on both sides."

"Anko-sensei, aren't we going to ask any questions?" Sakura asked.

"It doesn't really matter what we talk about," Anko said. "It just matters what her people think we're talking about."

Sakura looked over to where Temari sat in a drugged slouch, looking utterly miserable.

"This isn't being fair," Temari said dazedly. "I didn't want to attack Konoha."

Anko nodded, noting down that piece of information in her head.

"Ten to one, they know what I'm doing, kid," Anko said.

She didn't bother to note that even if they guessed that much, there was still the possibility that Temari was giving information to Konoha.

Or worse, had given it to them previously.

It was a terrible thing to do to any ninja, and Anko had somewhat lived with the aftereffects of a similar situation with her traitorous mentor, but Temari was the oldest child of the Kazekage, that made her a key source of infromation.

"Sakura-chan," Anko said, writing on a small scroll. "Get us some food and drinks please."

Sakura was about to protest being used for menial labor when she read the scroll and nodded.

"All right, Anko-sensei," she said irritably. "I'll be right back."

Then she left to find Ibiki Morino and deliver the small amount of information they'd already been able to glean.

* * *

* * *

"I'm afraid that you've over-exerted yourself, Hokage-sama," the medic told Hiruzen. "I don't think you'll be able to reach those levels of activity again even in absolute need."

"I understand," the Sandaime said. "I'm actually pleasantly surprised to be alive as it is. I had this idea that destiny might have had another idea in mind for me at first."

He stood up slowly and started to pull on the Hokage robes again.

"I have guests to see," he said wearily.

"I'd suggest selecting the Godaime soon," the medic said quietly. "If you stay as Hokage, you'll only shorten your life."

He nodded with a smile and walked through the doors, trying to put on his normal expression.

A few rooms down, he found himself faced with an interesting collection of people. Kakashi, Hiashi, Gai and Kurenai along with several special jonin and chunin from his personal staff waited in the room along with a five others, two of whom he was familiar with.

Kodachi and her assistant, Mokya sat in one place, the blind woman looking more recovered than he certainly felt. But then she was still in her thirties, her metabolism hadn't been slowed down by age too much yet.

Beside them was an arrogant looking woman who seemed to be from the Land of Tea though her postures and attitudes were from lands west of even the Wind country. It was easy to forget that this was simply a disguise for the winged creature that led their unlooked for help.

The man beside her was definitely a westerner in appearance and dress, with long black hair and robes like those favored by the Hyuuga clan.

"Ah, I suppose it is common for groundlings to keep others waiting," the disguised woman said from her seat.

"Kiima, you said you would behave," the aforementioned husband said tightly.

In response she twisted her head about and her mouth twitched.

"My apologies," she said. "Old habits come back easily under stress."

"Such a bigot you married one of us," Kurumi said idly. "And then...what's the Amazon term for it...but I think the term most here would know is 'henpecked'."

Kurumi and Kiima shared a glare.

"Perhaps I should apologize for wearing your sister's face," Kiima decided eventually.

"The one you almost killed her for...yeah," Kurumi said.

"Are you still a teenager, Kiima, calm down," Mousse said.

"Your groundling husband is telling you to behave, Kiima," Kurumi noted. "Don't you think you had better listen?"

Kodachi meanwhile shook her head and inclined her face up toward the ceiling in embarrassment herself.

"Mistress Kodachi thinks you're not helping Mistress Kurumi," Mokya noted.

The Hokage looked toward Kakashi with an arched eyebrow.

"This has been going on for the last thirty minutes," Kakashi said.

"Ladies, if we can put aside such differences for now," the Hokage said. "We have things to discuss. Such as how you might have known what was occurring."

"It was a request," Kiima said. "Some Musk loyal to Kodachi and Herb let the word out to the Joketsuzoku about a raid. Since they couldn't move without being watched, they asked us to intervene. Though I doubt it would have made much difference in the long term. Those fool Musk were already failing before we arrived."

"It made a difference of some lives," the Hokage said. "And for that, we thank you."

Kiima frowned and then gave a short seated bow toward the Hokage.

"We shall be out of your hair soon," Kiima said. "The Phoenix do not generally deign to interfere beyond the bounds of our homeland. We tend to leave you groundlings to slaughter eac..."

Mousse cleared his throat.

Kiima glanced at him and cleared her own throat, trying to recover something of a more polite stance again.

"In any regard," Kiima said. "Our task is finished, that is all that should concern you. We have business to discuss with Kodachi of the Musk and I assume she has to get on with the business of freeing her kingdom from these usurpers. I would appreciate it if you allowed us to get on with this business and we'll let you get on with whatever petty affairs you have to deal with."

"I'm beginning to understand the other woman's point," Kurenai noted with a sigh.

"Yes, I am a bigot," Kiima snapped. "I am aware of my shortcomings, thank you for pointing it out in typical groundling tact."

"She's not normally this bad," Mousse noted.

"Didn't mind control your first love into a willing slave?" Kurumi asked.

"That was a long time ago," Mousse said. "And Xian Pu got better. She's gotten a lot better, really, honest."

"Funny that I never see proof of that," the Tendo woman added.

Kodachi gestured toward Mokya, somehow managing to convey a sense of sarcasm.

"Mistress Kodachi is entirely mystified as to the reason why you've never seen the improvement, Mistress Kurumi," Mokya said with a perfectly straight-face.

The Hokage pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Ah, Diplomacy," he noted with the air of someone naming a source of grief.

* * *

* * *

"We found these in the possession of the last patient," one of the medics said as he brought a small purse forward to the head surgeon.

"Pills?" he said in curiosity. "Have you had them analyzed."

"While you were in surgery," the woman who'd brought them said. "What are her chances."

"Very slim," the surgeon said grimly. "The injury was severe to begin with and she is old with no physical training."

"These might also have an impact," the woman said returning to the pills and starting to read off what they'd found.

"Those are hormone packets to induce fertility," the surgeon noted in surprise, cutting her off. "This woman is deep into her fifties and well past any fertility, why would she be taking fertility pills?"

"I didn't finish, sir," the other medical ninja said. "They've been tampered with, laced with nicotine and certain other chemicals that long-term..."

"Would cause permanent brain damage," the head surgeon said. "You're saying that someone has been deliberately poisoning her with these things?"

He turned the purse over and found the symbol for silver embossed on the back.

"Why would someone do something like that?" he wondered.

* * *

* * *

Gaara felt much recovered, physically speaking, by the time that his captors had brought him into the village where the other prisoners were. He immediately noticed that the Sand were separated from the Sound and Musk survivors.

The Sunagakure medics were being provided with supplies to treat the wounded, but the Sound were being given only the most absolute minimum care. From what Gaara could tell, the guards on the Musk were only barely restraining themselves from killing them right there.

It was a hatred Gaara was familiar with seeing directed at him.

"Hey, what's up with those guys?" Naruto asked, indicating the separate stockades for the other groups of attacks.

Apparently he noticed the differences in treatment as well, somewhat.

One of the Anbu looked over and then back toward Naruto.

"The Sound attacked civilians," she said. "The Musk attacked anything female, even their 'allies', and few others. The Sand were at least professional in their treachery."

Gaara blinked and looked up.

"Temari," he said.

Kankuro, awake now, looked toward his younger brother and was uncertain whether or not he'd heard what he'd thought he'd heard. It sounded like Gaara was...worried.

"The Kazekage's daughter?" the Anbu asked. "She's talking to Anko-sama right now. She's fine."

Kankuro frowned at the implications of that statement, but he was certain that Temari wouldn't say anything to an enemy.

"You must be her brothers, did you disapprove of this invasion as well?" the Anbu asked.

"Oh, gee, did she pull the whole 'spread rumors of cooperation' thing?" Ino asked irritably, rolling her eyes.

Briefly she caught Kankuro's and Gaara's eyes and held them for a second before turning off to the side.

"Yamanaka-chan," the Anbu said coolly. "I do not know what you could mean. Asuma-sama is looking for you and Akichi-chan, by the way."

The statement was a more obvious reprimand than the Anbu should have used in the situation, and both Kankuro and Gaara got the message. Though it didn't answer the question as to how they knew she hadn't agreed with the plan.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing important," Sasuke said. "We've delivered the prisoners, we should find Kakashi and report to him."

Gaara walked over to an empty patch within the guarded area and sat down without a word. Kankuro, uncertain of why, followed and sat down a few feet away. A few other Sand looked toward Gaara and shifted further away from him as he sat down.

Naruto frowned at that and started to open his mouth.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said reaching to grab his sleeve. "Not right now."

In a fume, Naruto turned about and started to stalk off. Hinata bowed toward the Anbu.

"Where would we found Kakashi-sama or Kurenai-sensei?" she asked.

"They're both in the Hokage's office," the Anbu said, pointing the way. "But you're probably going to have to wait for them. You might want to head to the hospital first."

"Why's that?" Sasuke asked.

"Ryoko Saotome of Team 7 is there," the woman noted. "And I think Team 7 is you."

* * *

* * *

A medic came through the door into the room where Ryoko was sitting up with a very proper posture. He stopped, stared and shook his head as he considered the girl's injuries underneath the many medicated bandages they'd wrapped around her to sooth the burns and support other injuries.

"Why are ninja always so bad about following doctor's advice?" he wondered quietly, forgetting that Ryoko wasn't technically a ninja.

There were several people around her talking.

A young blonde girl with a family resemblance was sitting at the side of the bed and trying to make her sister promise not to scare her anymore. The medic recognized Joseibi Saotome from some earlier business regarding her shape-shifting curse.

Naruto Uzumaki was there, which used to be something that the medic would be irritated about. However, he'd heard some rumors recently that made him willing to tolerate the boy, as long as he didn't cause too much trouble. Naruto was also talking loudly and commenting about some battle he'd heard Ryoko had been involved in.

Close to the Uzumaki kid was the Hyuuga heir, of all people, Hinata Hyuuga was talking quietly in between Joseibi's and Naruto's more forceful comments toward the skittish girl on the bed. It was also obvious to the medic that she was quietly holding Naruto's hand.

Kiba Inuzuka stood at the head of the bed, watching Ryoko cautiously and apparently patiently waiting for a chance to say whatever was on his mind. Ryoko occasionally caught his eye and flushed nervously as she apologized to Joseibi and answered Naruto's questions.

A cleared throat behind the medic brought his eyes around to find Sasuke Uchiha standing alone in the corner with his arms crossed. The sound also attracted the attention from the other people in the room and the medic found several people looking at him.

"Excuse me, is your mother Nodoka Sao..." he started to say.

"What's she want?" Kiba demanded, saying "she" as if it were a curse.

"She was injured in the battle," he said, looking toward Kiba curiously. "In critical condition and there are...other things."

"So?" Kiba asked. "Ryoko's not going to see that witch."

"Ki...Inuzuka-san!" Ryoko protested. "I...I ha..have to..."

"Have to what, listen to her push you to..." Kiba's eyes flicked toward Joseibi and the medic. "Again?"

"S...she is my mother," the elder Saotome said.

"I'm with Kiba-kun, Onechan," Joseibi said bitterly, though she looked like she wanted to know more about what's going on.

"Is...is it going to be soon?" Hinata asked.

"She's stable for now," the medic said. "But we can't guarantee the next few days. And there are some things you should know about some pills she was taking..."

* * *

* * *

"I'm sorry about what happened," Shikamaru said to Temari as he walked up toward her and glanced at the guards outside the door. "My friend made sure your brothers knew what was going on."

"No, no," Temari said. "We attacked you. If you had attacked us and we took you prisoner we'd probably have done the same thing."

She took a deep breath and sighed.

"We're shinobi," she said. "It's part of the risk. Besides, I'm not the only one they pulled that with."

"So everybody's fine with you then?" Shikamaru asked.

Both knew that wasn't as easy as that. Playing the trick so obviously just increased the suspicion that one of the selected was an actual traitor and the others were selected just to cover the conversation.

"I'll be fine as soon as I get back to Sunagakure," Temari said firmly.

* * *

It was a few days later that the word came independently from both Anbu spies and the Sunagakure council, that the Kazekage had been dead for weeks before the invasion had happened.

"We have to present an...apology," Baki said as he came forward to collect his team and the other prisoners to be released.

Gaara, Temari and Kankuro stood behind him.

He was acting as the representative to the Konoha Council.

"Accepted," the Hokage said.

Despite the newly opened bad blood, neither Konoha nor Sunagakure could afford an extended conflict. Even if it was obvious that the Kazekage had been working with Orochimaru from the beginning, his assassination gave both sides an easy way to pass the buck and pretend the attack was not Suna's fault.

At least on paper.

"There is one request," Baki said.

"Really?" the Hokage said, frowning slightly. "And what is this."

"We want to make sure this won't happen again," Baki said. "So it was suggested that we...exchange some personnel on a semi-permanent basis."

"You mean an embassy?" Hiruzen asked, avoiding the term hostages. "And do you have a list of the names you would want to be a part of this exchange?"

Baki grimaced and looked over his shoulder briefly and then started listing names.

"And...Temari daughter of the Fourth Kazekage," he said finally, drawing a sudden gasp from the blonde girl behind him.

She looked up slightly in shock and then looked down toward her feet, frowning.

"It's rather convenient that most of these names are already here as prisoners," Koharu Utatane noted.

"It was decided that it would be best to assign individuals to this role who had already shown some good relations with the Leaf," Baki said painfully.

The Hokage frowned at the blatant purpose of this request. Preventing the return of people they felt had been compromised by the Konoha Anbu. Hiruzen didn't doubt that Ibiki had gotten to one or two, but doubted it was someone obvious.

And then there was Danzo.

"We'll be waiting to hear who you plan to send for your embassy," Baki said starting to turn to leave.

Gaara remained standing as his siblings and jonin started to leave the audience chamber and people started to stand up.

"I have a name to suggest for you," Gaara noted.

Baki stopped and turned to look at the younger of the siblings cautiously.

"Oh, and who would that be," the Hokage asked.

* * *

* * *

"I'm being asked to do what?" Ino demanded shrilly as Asuma talked to her.

* * *

* * *

Somewhere, many days travel away, on the edges of a port city, a fourteen year old girl was strapped to a table underneath a slow constant drip of water. There was a blindfold around her eyes and plugs in her ears as well as a gag in her mouth.

As each drop of water struck her head, her hands twitched.

After on hour of almost nothing happening, a door finally opened and a girl six or seven years older than the bound one came in. She was dark-skinned with brown hair, an apparent native of the Lightning nation.

She sashayed up to the captive's side and pulled the ear-plugs and gag out of the girl's mouth.

"Okay, time to try this again, baby," the black girl said in a conversational tone. "What's your name?"

"Kin...Tsuchi of Oto..." she was interrupted as the gag was forced back into her mouth.

"I'm sorry, but that's the wrong answer," the woman said with a tsking sound. "Don't feel bad, we'll get you back where you're supposed to be eventually, then you can forget this person you've made up for yourself."

Then the ear plugs were put back in and the woman walked out of the chamber to see a man maybe ten years older than her and terribly skinny.

"Tsh, they're so unpliable at this age," she said. "I have to wonder how permanent any programming we give her will be in the long run."

The woman sighed and shook her head with a smirk before frowning momentarily.

"You know, this whole process always seems so familiar," she said.

"Are you having regrets, Mistress?" the man asked.

"Oh, of course not, Gos-kun," the black-woman said with a shrug. "I'm not one to have any sort of maidenly feelings."

"Nabiki Tendo never did," Gosunkugi agreed.

"Exactly," his apparent employer said. "And I am Nabiki Tendo. The real Nabiki Tendo, of course."

Gosunkugi breathed a sigh of relief as the moment of introspection passed. It would be a shame to lose this one, she was turning out to be one of the better decoys.

* * *

* * *

Ryoko, still wrapped in bandages in a few places but having been released from the hospital a couple of days ago, stood outside the door to her mother's room in hospital and quietly decided whether or not she should go in.

The last time she'd seen her mother, she'd pretty much thrown everything Nodoka had taught her about honor and behavior into Nodoka's face and simply done what she wanted to do. It had been a curious feeling before that she hadn't exactly been able to pin down, but now she simply felt a lot of embarrassment and shame.

If she went in now, mother was sure to remind her of this terrible sin.

Which was why Naruto, Hinata, Kiba and Joseibi had all practically forbidden her to talk to her mother. Or at least, they said something close to that.

Still, she'd been trying to work up the nerve to present her disobedient face to her mother long enough to wish her well. And this was about as far as she'd gotten yet.

Some deeply unworthy part of her wondered if she was unconsciously trying to put it off until it was too late and be able to say that she tried. She'd just been unlucky that Nodoka was hanging on so long.

That thought didn't reach consciousness, thankfully and Ryoko eventually steeled herself with a heavy intake of breath to enter the room.

Nodoka lay on the bed quietly unconscious with several machines attached to monitor her status and sustain her life. Ryoko approached her cautiously, even sedately and took a seat at the side of the bed, bowing before she did so.

"Hello, Okaasama," she said. "I ap...apologize fo..for taking so long to c...come and visit. Uzumaki-san and Ki...Inuzuka-san say I should not talk to you. Hyuuga-san thinks th...that too. I...I am sorry I could not do the duty you wished me too...I..h..have a d..duty to my comrades and this village. P...perhaps when I n...no longer have a duty, I w...will be free to perform seppuku a..as you asked."

She frowned at that statement.

"I do not think I r...really want to do that," she said slowly.

"That's good," a voice beside Ryoko said.

Slowly, Ryoko turned toward the sound of the voice and found a tall, dark-haired man sitting in the chair next to hers. He was about the same age as Kodachi, maybe a little bit older, and Ryoko couldn't seem to feel his presence at all in the flow of chi around her.

"Ano?" the young martial artist asked.

"Are you Ryoko?" the man asked.

"H...hai," the dark-haired girl said, adjusting her glasses.

"I'm Ranma," he told her.

Ryoko blinked and tried to remember where she had heard that name before.

"Oh! You are one of Kodachi-sama's masters," Ryoko declared cheerfully as she remembered where she'd heard the name before.

The older man laughed once then.

"A..are y..you here to see Kodachi-sama?" Ryoko said.

"My wife went on to see her," the man said. "I hear Kurumi's been around too?"

"I met h...her when the in..invasion happened," Ryoko said. "She t...told Okaasama that she c..could not remove me fr...from the clan."

"Okay, did she say why?" Ranma asked.

"Be..because the he..head of the clan is my brother," Ryoko said. "I d..did not know I ha...had a brother, did you know he has the same n...name as..."

Ryoko stopped talking and let her mouth hang open as she turned slowly to face Ranma completely.

"Yeah, this is a surprise to me too," Ranma said. "We only got Kurumi's message four days ago. Parents, students and sisters."

He waited briefly for Ryoko to respond.

"You don't say much, do you?" he asked.

"Ano?" Ryoko repeated.

Ranma smiled briefly and reached out to experimentally rougly Ryoko's hair.

Instantly, Ryoko flinched away from that and started hastily trying to straighten out her hair.

"P..please do not do that," Ryoko said before pausing for a bit and frowning. "Ar...are you really my brother?"

"Nodoka Saotome is my mother," Ranma said simply.

They sat quietly, Ranma looking toward Nodoka and Ryoko looking from him to their mother. Finally, she said a brief word.

"Ano..." Ryoko said hesitantly.

"What do you want?" Ranma asked, trying to sound a bit more polite than the words implied.

"W...would it be possible to spar?" Ryoko asked. "Later?"

Ranma laughed at the question and shook his head.

"You're certainly a Saotome," he declared.


	37. Winddown

Jiraiya frowned as he walked into the Hokage's office and noted that there was no one else there. He slipped in through the window and let his feet hang down as he took a seat on the sill.

"Well, old man," he said. "You came out of that all right."

"Hmph," Hiruzen said with a laugh. "I don't think it is as simple as that."

The two men remained silent for a moment longer.

"I need to find a replacement, Jiraiya," the older said. "I can't defend the village as a Hokage should as I am now."

"We've been down this conversation before," Jiraiya said.

"It is an emergency situation," Hiruzen responded.

"I am not the one that needs to be Hokage," Jiraiya said. "I am not the correct choice."

"And who would you suggest instead?" Hiruzen asked.

"You're already looking for her, aren't you?" Jiraiya asked.

"Oh, Tsunade," the old man who'd once been called the God of Ninjutsu said. "She might be a very good choice, but you know as well as I that she's not likely to accept."

"Let me see about convincing her," Jiraiya said. "I'll take the boy with me."

"Naruto?" his old mentor repeated with a smirk. "I assume you're how he's come to be able to control the Kyuubi's chakra already?"

"I may have had something to do with it," the Toad Sage said with his own smile. "It seemed time to handle that."

There was another long period of silence between the master and the student.

"Is there a time?" he asked.

"Nothing definite," the Hokage said seriously. "But I am already less than the Hokage needs to be. This needs to be taken care of soon, Jiraiya. If you can't find Tsunade or convince her to take the office, it will have to be you."

Jiraiya nodded at that and sighed.

"Do you have the files on the boy and his team?" Jiraiya asked.

"Right here," the Hokage said, turning toward his desk and taking up the files in question to hand them over.

"An Uchiha," the Toad Sage said nodding as he looked over Sasuke's file. "And chi use?"

"Recent development apparently," the older man said.

"That could be very useful," Jiraiya said. "Itachi is a part of these Akatsuki I've been sending you reports on."

"The ones looking into the jinchuriki," Hiruzen said, frowning. "I received that report."

"It gives this Sasuke a common foe with Naruto," Jiraiya noted.

"There is the curse mark to be concerned with," the old man warned.

"And that is a very big deal," Jiraiya agreed. "And this Saotome...Kishu Osore?"

Hiruzen nodded and looked up at the tone of Jiraiya's voice.

"Does that mean something to you?" he asked.

"Orochimaru looked into the Kishu jutsu at one point," Jiraiya said with a frown.

* * *

* * *

Temari looked about the apartment she'd been given by the leaf. It was fairly small compared to what she'd lived in as the daughter of the Kazekage, and her few personal items that she'd brought with her before the invasion were already in the room as she sat down on the bed.

This...this was apparently her new home.

The blonde knew she'd be here probably for some time, unless she wanted to become a missing nin.

Her own people no longer trusted her as one of their own it seemed. In fact, they didn't seem to even think that she was trustworthy enough to even given her a chance to prove that she was still trustworthy. Her obvious mission of helping keep a flow of information between the Sand and the Leaf was the only option she had for proving herself that way.

On the other hand, through all the conversations she had with the Leaf Anbu, she hadn't given them but one other piece of information and all that was a blurted confirmation about the demon in her younger brother, which they'd already known by that point. Konoha was certain not to trust her.

It looked like she was going to be without a chance to use her skills now. She was going to end up a paper-shuffling bureaucrat.

A knock came to her door and she stood up to walk across to see who it was. Seeing her younger brother on the other side of the peep hole made her freeze in her place.

"Wh..what is he doing here?" she wondered nervously as she considered just standing very still until Gaara decided to leave.

Then her youngest brother's head turned to face her.

"Temari," he said. "I know you're there."

Swallowing, she opened the door hesitantly and stepped aside so that he could enter.

"This is a surprise," she said nervously.

"I'm not here to kill you," Gaara said simply as he looked around. "This is small."

"It is," Temari said, not commenting on the killing subject for fear of jinxing it. "What are you here for?"

"Sorry," Gaara said.

Temari blinked and shook her head.

"What did you say?" she wondered.

"Sorry," Gaara repeated.

Temari stared in something like shock.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"They showed me I was wrong," Gaara said.

"Who, what?" Temari asked.

"Her and him," he said, pointing toward one of Temari's walls.

"Him?" Temari said, sitting down on her bed. "That blonde kid, Uzumaki."

"That's right," Gaara said. "He is strong. And he protects others. I tried that at one time."

Temari thought about her own conversation with Uzumaki, or at least one of his clones.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," she said quietly. "I'm your big sister, I should have been there for you."

Gaara turned to look at her quietly and piercingly.

"I have to leave soon," Gaara said. "I'll try to see you brought home soon."

"You'd have to be Kazekage to change a ruling of the Council," Temari said incredulously.

Gaara just nodded and turned to walk out of the room.

"Goodbye," he said. "Kankuro will probably be by to say farewell himself later."

"Right," Temari said as Gaara opened the door and walked out onto the walkway.

She followed him out and watched walk off with more than a little confusion. He walked to the corner of the apartment's balcony and started to turn a corner when someone else came around it and flinched aside into a stance.

"The hell? Gaara?" the individual snapped in surprise as the Suna shinobi walked past with only a basic nod in response.

Temari looked toward this new person and frowned as she recognized Naruto. This was someone she had no worries about telling off.

The blonde watched him move up the walkway, eyes still focused towards where Gaara had vanished.

"What the hell are..."

Temari froze as the blonde kid opened the next door over from the one that opened on her granted apartment.

Naruto turned around and saw the Sand girl that was standing in the open doorway of the til then empty apartment next door.

"Oh hell no!"

Two voices noted as Hinata came around the corner and saw Naruto pointing at Temari as the Sunagakure shinobi smacked the palm of her hand into her face.

* * *

* * *

Gaara was walking up toward the gathering of Suna and Konoha shinobi gathering to make the trip to sand. His brother wasn't yet with them, probably saying goodbye to Temari himself, but there was at least one person that seemed to have something to say as Gaara approached.

"You!" Ino snapped before marching down the street to intercept Gaara in front of everybody's eyes. "You're the one that gave my name for this thing aren't you?"

Behind her, the large boy that had been with her before stood next to the boy that had fought Temari in the finals. With them was an older ninja. They didn't look packed to go the way she was, so obviously they were here to see her off.

"Yes, I suggested you," Gaara noted.

"Why, so you can try to kill me again?" the blonde telepath demanded.

"No," Gaara said.

"Then why did you suggest my name?" Ino asked.

"You're suited to this mission for both your village's benefit and my own," Gaara said.

"And why's that?" Ino asked.

"Because your village will never let Naruto take such a role," he said. "And you're the next best thing."

Ino's jaw dropped at Gaara's response.

"Next best thing to...to...Naruto?" Ino repeated faintly.

* * *

* * *

"Lady Kiima," a winged man said, drawing attention as he flapped across the street and landed next to a woman with short, blue-black hair. "Shouldn't you be at the meeting with the Musk Qu..."

He stopped as the woman turned to face him and he took in her clothes. It was a rather modern sort of sundress modeled off traditional styles in the Land of Tea.

"Kiima's still here?" the woman said with a frown. "Think you can show me where she and Kodachi are?"

"Err, Mistress Saotome," the Phoenix said hesitantly. "We sent Mistress Tendo's message only a few days ago."

"We obviously got it," she said, crossing her arms. "Now, where's this meeting."

She arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms, fingers tapping against one of her arms.

* * *

* * *

"So, the Phoenix are going to sit out then?" Kurumi asked bitterly, staring at Kiima.

"We've already helped you grou..." Kiima started to say.

A cleared throat interrupted her and she looked over toward Mousse before settling down.

"The majority of the Musk strength is dealt with," Kiima said, turning pointedly to look at Kodachi. "You no longer need us."

Kodachi nodded in response, though the trace of a frown could be seen under the hair that came down over her face. She handed over a note to Mokya after tearing it out of the notebook in her hand.

"Mistress Kodachi is aware of your circumstances, Lady Kiima," Mokya said. "You've already helped more than she would have expected the Phoenix to risk."

"It had to be done," Kiima said. "Hops was risking the entire valley with this nonsense. People know about us now...many people."

"If the Musk raid had been even partially successful," Mousse noted. "Several ninja villages, great and small would have placed their eyes on the Valley."

"So it was self-preservation," Kiima asked.

"Tendo," Kiima said. "Twenty years ago, that...misunderstanding between my people and your sister and her husband left Lord Saffron unable to sustain our people for fifteen years, we barely survived."

"You had help," Mokya said, translating for Kodachi.

"And further entanglement with groundlings drew us into the war with that demon and his students," Kiima snapped. "We're hardly a shadow of what we were before Grandmaster Ranma defeated Lord Saffron. We could barely afford to bring three squads to this action.

She frowned and shuffled in her seat with a discomforted expression.

"It's only luck and timing that prevented much in the way of serious injury on our part when we found ourselves arriving in the close of a three way battle," Mousse finished for her.

Kodachi nodded and looked toward Kurumi nudging Mokya and handing her a note.

"The Musk are facing similar problems," Mokya read. "The best were killed in the treachery and now this. What about the Joketsuzoku?"

"After this," Mousse said. "They're probably the strongest in the Valley. But we all have the same problem..."

"Nobody has the numbers."

The voice sounded like that of Kiima's human disguise and people started to look at her before realizing that she hadn't been talking. Which was when the various masters in the room felt the subtle shift of the chi in the room and turned to look at a short-haired twin to Kiima's disguise.

"There are three living grandmasters, fifteen known true chi-masters," Akane said. "And maybe a hundred disciples. Perhaps twenty-five-hundred total initiates and students? All of us split across eight major chi-schools and a handful of family styles who, until twelve years ago, were at each others' throats. Chakra-wielders outnumber us ten-times over."

"Akane-nee," Kurumi said with a cheerful but sarcastic look. "Inheritance techniques aren't for showing off. I'm guessing Ranma is here, how about the Ka's?"

"We left _Kaneda_ and _Kasumi_ with Ukyou and Konatsu," Akane said. "Your message was talking war, so didn't think they should come."

Kodachi nudged Mokya and started to gesture.

"Mistress Kodachi is surprised that the merchant would take your children in so charitably," Kodachi noted.

"She's keeping a tab," Akane noted.

"That sounds more like her," Mokya translated for Kodachi.

* * *

* * *

Ryoko couldn't help but watch her brother as she walked beside him. She still couldn't feel much of a shift in the chi flows around him, though she knew, based on how easily he'd snuck up on her, that he had to be a great master like Kodachi-sensei said.

Mistress Kurumi was hard to feel as well, it was like the better a chi-adept was, the harder it was to tell they could do anything. It made sense given the way sloppy chi use was more visible and noticeable than efficient chi-use.

So...how did she tell between a master and a novice?

"How long have you been living here?" Ranma asked.

"T..two or th...three years," Ryoko said.

"How do you get stuff?" he asked. "Where do you get your money?"

"Oh, I am on a sh..shinobi team a...a...as a...umm..." she paused.

"You're a mercenary," Ranma reasoned. "I did that with my...our dad when I was your age too. How about you...our sister?"

"Sh...she is in the Konoha Academy," Ryoko noted.

"She's going to be a ninja?" the older Saotome asked, clearly surprised.

"Is th..that a problem?" Ryoko asked.

"No, just surprised," Ranma said. "She's learning chakra use then?"

"Hai," Ryoko said. "Kakashi-sensei and Ebisu-sensei are t...teaching m..me how to use ch..chakra as well."

"I heard you use both chi and chakra," Ranma said conversationally.

"H...hai," Ryoko said. "Shall I show you?"

"Let's meet your sister first," Ranma said with a smirk.

"Hai," Ryoko said. "Th..the Inuzuka clan home is u..up here."

She pointed up toward the building ahead and started to step ahead of her brother for the door until noting a small, blonde fox running past her feet.

"Imouto-chan!" Ryoko called out, turning to watch the fox running past. "What are you..."

And then a small pack of large, wolf-like dogs swarmed around where she was standing as Ryoko swiftly covered her head. As the dogs moved past her, she slowly lifted her head up in confusion.

"Ano..."

"Something wrong?" Ranma asked.

"M...most times there's a ru..running pack of dogs," she said. "I get kno...knocked down and..."

"Whoa!" a voice declared shortly before Kiba and Akamaru swung around the corner and slammed into her before they could stop.

Ranma looked down at the tangle of kids in front of him and shook his head.

"Oh damn it!" Kiba shouted standing up and helping Ryoko stand up as well while Akamaru barked around them. "Ryoko-chan are you okay?"

"I-itai," she said, shaking her head clear.

"Is this a common thing?" Ranma asked.

"Who the hell are you?" Kiba demanded.

"Kiba-kun, th..this is my brother," Ryoko said.

Kiba immediately stepped forward in between Ryoko and Ranma and frowned up at the elder Saotome, who smiled at the response for a moment.

"Don't worry kid, I'm safe," he said.

He pointed towards where the fox had gone.

"Ryoko, I heard you say 'imouto-chan'," he said. "The fox?"

"H...hai," Ryoko said. "Th..there is this pla..."

"Believe me on this one, I've been there," Ranma said. "And had to live with it."

"So what do you turn into then?" Kiba asked, still cautious.

"A woman," he said off-handedly. "Kiba...wouldn't that make you the 'genius' that Ryoko says she can't beat."

"Uh..." Kiba said, starting to lose his certainty. "Well..."

* * *

* * *

"You're living in Konoha," Akane said to Kodachi. "Have you thought about getting your eyes and tongue replaced? They have people here that can do that."

"We looked into it Aunt Akane," Mokya said. "But there's been six years since the injuries, we were told it would take someone of singular mastery to fix that."

Akane nodded and shook her head as Kodachi shrugged in confirmation.

She looked over her shoulder and listened to Kiima and Kurumi arguing in the next room.

"Kiima seems to have lightened up some," she said.

Kodachi twisted her hand about in response. Akane didn't need Mokya to translate the so-so message.

"Well, she isn't trying to kill or enslave any of us 'groundlings' and she married Mousse," Akane clarified.

Kodachi crossed her arms and nodded at that.

"That's a strange qualifier, Aunt Akane," Mokya said.

* * *

* * *

Tsume walked around the corner to what sounded like that Ryoko girl sparring. She shook her head, the girl couldn't have been fully recovered yet and she was already going at such heavy exertions.

The woman smirked as she came around to the back of the building toward the training ground and was surprised to see a man standing there about her own age and Kiba and Akamaru looking on from the sidelines.

She could smell the nervousness in her son from where she stood, but he held back.

Ryoko darted in toward her opponent and swung with her bokken.

Her opponent moved barely a foot inward and pushed the blade aside at the base simply. There was no hurry or anxiety in the man's bearing at all and as the girl passed by him he turned about to look toward Tsume and nod toward her before stepping aside an inch and dodging another attack by the girl and returning his attention to her.

The young girl slid across the ground as if it were ice and then came to a sudden stop as she twisted about, transferring the chi of that motion through her body and into her sword.

This time he caught the bokken and took it gently and swiftly out of her hand. She started to respond by twisting about into a kick, but the older man shut her down completely before her kick could rise much more than a foot off the ground.

Ryoko blinked as she found herself held in a firm but more or less painless grip with one arm twisted behind her in a way that put her off balance on her tip toes.

"Ano..." she said, confused as to what happened. "What...what just happened?"

"That's about it, ki..." the older man paused and frowned a moment. "Sis, you've got some injuries you still need to recover from before you get that serious."

He let her go so that she gained back her balance and brushed off her shoulders.

"Sorry about the intrusion, Ma'am," Ranma said to Tsume with a wave. "I'll be over there in a moment. Gotta talk to her a bit first."

"Not a problem," Tsume said watching the stranger with unconcealed caution.

"So, I see Pop and Kodachi in your form," he said. "You've got some basic Kuno-Ryu kendo in there. Has she introduced Rhythmic Gymnastics yet?"

"Ano..." Ryoko said. "I h..have only been studying under Kodachi-sensei f...for two months."

"So all she's had time to do then is correct Pops' mistakes," Ranma reasoned.

"Father was an ex..excellent teacher," Ryoko protested.

Ranma looked to her thoughtfully and looked toward Kiba and noting the boy's tension at that subject.

"He ever explain something to you first? Or just make you do it?" Ranma asked.

"H...he did not need to do s...such," Ryoko said. "He was ab..able to teach me without n..needing to explain..."

"Sounds more like you're a good learner than he's a good teacher," Tsume said quietly to herself so as not to interrupt the obvious lesson.

"That ain't teaching," Ranma said, shaking his head. "Trust me on this, I've seen a couple of teaching methods an' his are pretty haphazard. Sink or swim. Short-sighted."

Ranma sat down on the ground then and cupped his chin.

"Sit down, Ryoko," he said then. "Relax, let your body heal."

Ryoko frowned for a moment, but slowly sat down and moved into seiza provoking Ranma to shake his head and roll his eyes.

"Is she like this all the time?" he asked, looking toward Kiba and Tsume.

"I don't trust you yet," Kiba said.

"Yeah," Ranma said, looking over his shoulder to look for some of the visible damage from the recent invasion. "I can see why."

"There was some sort of problem with the girl's mother a couple of days ago," Tsume said. "None of the kids are being specific, but..."

"I heard," Ranma said grimly. "One of my friends was there for most of it."

He shook his head and took a breath as he slapped his knees and stood up to turn toward Tsume.

"Anyway, I've been talking long enough without saying who I am," the man explained. "I'm Ranma Saotome Grandmaster of the Redeemed School of Martial Arts. Ryoko and I have the same parents."

"Tsume Inuzuka," Tsume said. "Clan leader and jonin of Konohagakure."

Ranma nodded respectfully.

"So...when is this other sister I'm supposed to have going to be finished getting chased by dogs?" Ranma asked.

"How close behind her were they?" Tsume asked.

"They had her in sight," Kiba answered before Ranma could, drawing a glare from his mother.

"Then she'll be getting rounded up pretty soon," Tsume said.

"I'm guessing you aren't her teacher," Ranma said, pointing toward Ryoko who blinked in surprise.

"What makes you say that?" Tsume asked, curiously.

"There's none of your motion in hers," Ranma said casually with a shrug.

The Inuzuka woman blinked at that comment, wondering if he'd really analyzed her motion enough to make such a statement or if he was just guessing.

* * *

* * *

Kiima poured the hot water over herself after being handed the bottle and shifted into the full glory of her Phoenix tribe body, wings talons and all.

"We'll carry your messages to Matriarch Xian Pu," she said, handing the bottle back to Kodachi. "But likely that will be the end of our involvement in this."

Kodachi nodded.

"She understands," Mokya said.

"We'd like to do more," Mousse said as his wife gave a supporting but not to enthusiastic nod.

Kiima looked past Akane and Kodachi down the street to where she saw Sasuke Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake walking down the street and frowned.

"You're leaving now?" the ninja said casually. "Without giving the Hokage a farewell?"

Kiima frowned deeper and then nodded.

"Indeed, The Saotomes and I have certainly neglected such manners," Kiima noted pointedly.

"My apologies," Akane said, turning toward Kakashi. "We came in through the gate and gave our names and business. I almost destroyed one perverted Hyuuga, but that was about it."

Kiima turned to look at Akane.

"You actually reported at the gate?" she asked.

"That's the way your supposed to do things," Akane said.

Behind her Kurumi and Kodachi agreed.

* * *

* * *

"What the hell are you doing here?" Naruto demanded of the older blonde.

"I'm living here now," she said in a forced tone of voice as she folded her arms.

"Next door to me?" Naruto said loudly.

Hinata was approaching from behind a bit quickly, eye brows arched nervously.

"Naruto-kun," she said. "Please, I'm sure there's no reason to be concerned."

"Yeah," the stubborn blonde said. "I've already beaten her once after all."

"Why you little brat!" Temari snapped. "You played a damn trick on me and ran off while I fought your clones."

"Uhh, Temari-san..." Hinata said. "Isn't neutralizing an enemy with little loss to yourself the most effective way to victory?"

"That's right," Naruto said proudly. "Thanks Hinata-chan."

"Y..your welcome, Naruto-kun," Hinata said nervously, turning toward the door.

Temari's eyebrow twitched as she turned to look at the Hyuuga.

"Uhh...sorry?" Hinata said. "Perhaps we should just go to our separate apart..." she gasped and turned beat red as she realized what she had just said.

"Ehh?" Naruto asked, turning to look at her. "Our what?"

"Oh, nothing, Naruto-kun," Hinata said swiftly and turning toward the door to start to play with the knob as Naruto looked on, still a bit confused.

For her part, the Sand genin's eyebrow twitched as the display of a childish crush simply aggravated her more.

Realistically, Temari knew that even if she was willing to start a real fight, her chances against the two of these genin together in one place already within five feet of her, was slim.

Especially since her weapons were still apparently being "processed" and hadn't yet been returned to her.

Why a fan and the other standard equipment she had would take more than a week to "process" was beyond her.

Save the obvious political reasons of course.

"Can you at least tell me what the foul odor coming in through the window is?" Temari asked irritably. "So I can report it?"

Naruto blinked a bit confusion. What smell was she talking about? There wasn't a smell coming in through the window.

At least there wasn't the last time he was home which was...

And then Hinata opened the door to Naruto's apartment.

The smell of expired milk and other things flowed out of the apartment, no longer restrained by the door, and washed over the three genin on the landing.

The flushes of embarrassment or anger was suddenly replaced by the slightly green tinge of nausea as the three scattered away from the open door.

"How much of a slob are you?" Temari demanded.

"Hey, I cleaned up before I left town," Naruto protested. "I think."

"The food went bad," Hinata said, covering her mouth as the free flowing air worked to cleanse out the lingering stench.

"That happens when you're not home for more than a month," a new voice said drawing attention down the walkway toward where Shikamaru was walking up.

He looked over toward Temari and nodded at her.

"Everybody's getting ready to head off to Sunagakure," he said. "Didn't see you there. Damn, I just got a whiff of that, what do you keep in your house, Naruto?"

Temari didn't respond to the other ninja's comment about her not seeing off her country men. She assumed a lot of the twelve or so others being left behind were likewise avoiding the issue mostly.

"I think that's expired milk," Naruto said weakly.

"You mean this happens enough that you can actually recognize the smell?" Temari demanded.

"It's usually pretty clean!" Naruto protested. "Really."

"That's true," Hinata said. "Naruto-kun spends a lot of his spare time cleaning."

She paused for a moment, flushed brightly and then continued.

"N...not that I've been watching at all," she said quickly. "Th...that would be a little...strange?"


	38. Lectures

Joseibi grumbled as she was carried back by the scruff of the neck in the jaws of one of the Haimaru brothers. She supposed that she could make the chakra shift to start the change back to human, but that would just mean getting dragged back in her human body.

That was a lot more embarrassing than being carried as a small, blonde fox.

Even if Kuromaru was taking them down a number of the more public streets.

She swore he was doing it on purpose.

Then the Inuzuka compound came into sight and the dogs padded around to the back where they found Tsume-sensei watching Kiba spar some man that looked and smelled familiar.

Ryoko was sitting in seiza as usual and watching the spar rapturously.

The dogs watched the fight curiously for a moment before Joseibi was plopped on the ground.

And then Joseibi did focus on the chakra through her body. It was different than using hand signs, but the various sort of mental and physical shifts she had to make to form and shape the chakra inside her was getting easier. With a slow and uncomfortable shiver, she turned back into a little girl about eight years of age and stood up to walk over by Tsume Inuzuka.

To Joseibi's eye, it looked a bit like whoever was sparring Kiba was only just barely avoiding each strike. Well, until she looked at his face and that showed that there was no concern at all as he diverted a blow at seemingly the last moment and returning it with strikes and trips that sent Kiba repetitively off balance and stumbling to recover himself.

"You're about a hundred years too early to beat me, kid," the man said at last as Kiba landed on his back hard at the man's feet.

"Damn it," Kiba snapped as he stood back up. "We'll see about that. Akamaru!"

"Hey, Tsume-sensei," Joseibi asked. "Who's the old guy?"

"Old guy?" Tsume asked, glancing down at her student. "He's about the same age as me."

"Right, Tsume-sensei," Joseibi noted. "Who is he?"

"Maybe I should wait to tell until certain full-of-themselves kits get it in their head to make a bit of an apology," Tsume noted.

"Oh!" Ryoko gasped, twisting about. "Imouto-chan, is it not excellent. This man is our elder brother!"

Joseibi's jaw dropped as she ran through the potential meanings of that statement.

"Imouto-chan?" Ryoko said, frowning slightly in concern. "Are you all right?"

The man turned aside casually as Kiba rushed in only to be deflected toward the side. He took her in visually and nodded at her as he casually snatched Akamaru out of the air and put a foot out into Kiba's path, sending the boy sprawling forward as his high-speed style was turned against him.

"You must be Joseibi," Ranma said with a smile. "Let me just finish this up, all right?"

* * *

* * *

The Hokage stared across toward the assorted chi-users gathered in his office for a second time. He looked between Kiima, her curse reactivated, and Akane Saotome carefully.

"I understand that some of you are leaving and some of you have just arrived," the Hokage noted.

"That's right," Akane said. "My husband is also here, but he went to speak to his sisters."

The Hokage nodded, he'd gotten something of a report on that from the Inuzuka clan home already.

"And I assume you would not mind if I take my leave," Kiima said. "I have been outside my home long enough."

"If you don't mind," Hiruzen said. "I'd rather talk to you about matters in the neighborhood of the Musk Dynasty."

"That is a matter for my people and Kodachi's," Kiima said. "Ninja need not concern themselves with it."

"Actually, we have an agreement with her," the Hokage said, looking toward Kodachi and Mokya.

Kodachi glanced toward Mokya and nodded.

"Mistress Kodachi has made a deal involving an exchange of services with Konoha," Mokya explained. "She instructs Ryoko Saotome in the use of chi and, in exchange, Konoha agreed to help her find and save her family."

Kiima's mouth twitched as she looked toward Kodachi, sipping her tea quite calmly.

"It's been nearly a week and she's failed to mention that," Kiima noted clearly.

* * *

* * *

"You hired mercenaries...outsiders?" Kiima asked.

Kodachi nodded and looked toward Mokya who nodded as well.

"Mistress Kodachi primarily requested aide in finding the place her son is being held," the girl noted. "As that is not in Musk lands. However, given the attack on the Leaf, she is willing to allow 'observers' along for the remaining liberation."

"Observers," Kiima said irritably.

"And how can we be sure that this isn't a first step towards more interference?" Mousse asked cautiously.

"At this point it is inevitable," the Hokage said. "You've made yourself known to who knows how many people. They will look for you."

He gestured toward Kiima specifically and the disguised Phoenix shuffled about nervously. The fact of her wings in her true form was something that she couldn't hide.

"We'll only be sending one team," the Hokage continued. "As both observers and to protect Kodachi who is our client."

"I would ask to meet the chosen individuals ahead of time," Kiima insisted.

"That is acceptable," Hiruzen said.

* * *

* * *

Hana walked into her home after delivering the message to the Hokage's office and had a confused expression on her face as she entered the front room and saw her mother, Kiba and the two Saotome sisters staring in shock at the fifth person at the table.

It was a red-headed woman of about thirty years old, no taller than five foot four inches and of a very slight build. Other than that, the woman was dressed pretty much exactly the same as the man that had been here when she'd left, right down to the hair style, though the color was now red.

The woman was setting some food down on the table and taking off an apron before sitting down.

"Sorry about this, I still like cooking as a woman more than a man," the woman said nonsensically. "I literally can't count the number of food or cooking related contests are only allow women to compete."

She rolled her eyes and sat down before looking up towards Hana.

"Did you get your message off?" she asked with a smile. "Got some ninja in animal masks on the way to make sure I'm not a threat?"

Ryoko stared, blinking and pointing, at her elder...brother?...sister?...sibling?

"Ano..." she said. "Y...you really do change into a woman."

"Yeah, and it only took you thirty minutes to say that," Ranma teased before looking toward Joseibi. "Between Pops and you, you'd think this would be less of a surprise."

"Yeah, that might be too much to hope," Joseibi said weakly.

"So, hold it, is this..." Hana started to say.

"This is Ranma Saotome," Tsume said.

"What is this a henge?" Hana asked.

It smelled real, but Henge's could copy smell if the maker knew how.

"No, it's a curse like the brat's here," Ranma said pointing toward Joseibi. "Anyway, they're going to be asking me to go speak to your boss in a bit so I'm going to go over the summary real quick."

"Summary of what?" Hana asked, experimentally taking a bit of the prepared food.

It wasn't the best food she'd ever tasted, but it was definitely passable. Actually, it tasted very much of a campfire recipe and would probably have turned out better in the wilds.

"You have your villages," Ranma said. "We have our schools."

Politics, Hana noted with a nod, important things to know.

"There are eight major schools of chi practice," she said, idly moving her hand over to the side of her plate.

Hana watched the movement and blinked as she noticed Ryoko's face turn a bit confused at the same time.

"There's the Musk Dynasty," Ranma said. "But with the exception of the dragon line, they're only half-taught. But they're strong in what they can do, so they're considered a major school."

She moved a free hand again as the one with her chopsticks brought some food to her mouth. Ryoko frowned and looked down at her own chopsticks in something like confusion.

"There's the Kuno family," the red-head said. "Kodachi's one of them. There aren't many of them, and a lot of them are insane, so they don't often get strong. But they can become false masters sometimes. An then there's Kodachi, who's trying to fix herself. They used to be demon hunters, but after a bit they started getting crazy."

Another motion and this time everyone saw Ryoko's chopsticks deflected aside as Ranma casually took another bite.

"There's the Seven Lucky Gods school," Ranma added. "And they have styles based on the seven Fortunes. They live somewhere that way."

She gestured vaguely and drove Ryoko's chopstick down to her own food.

"There's the Phoenix," she continued. "And you've seen them. They think they rule the air because they happen to be able to fly."

"Being able to fly would be a big advantage in aerial fights," Tsume noted.

Ranma snorted.

"I don't care if someone has wings, a flying horse or weird super powers," she said. "A well trained user of Saotome-Ryu owns the air and everything that's in it."

Ryoko's chopsticks ended up in her own mouth, empty.

"There're the Art schools," Ranma noted. "Rhythmic Gymnastics, Skating, Honor Guard, Morale Force, various Cooking styles...other stuff. Bunches of chi-adepts that adapted some performance art into a vehicle for fighting skill. The worst thing about these is that they don't seem dangerous until you fight them."

"That's five," Tsume noted, arching an eyebrow at Ryoko as it became increasingly obvious why some people felt less full than expected around the black-haired girl. "Who else?"

"Joketsuzoku, Anything Goes and Redeemed school," Ranma said. "And they're all sort of related."

"Ano..." Ryoko said. "H..how are they related?"

"The Grandmaster Happosai originated the Anything Goes school half by stealing techniques from Joketsuzoku," the red-head noted. "And then Pops created the Senken and old man Tendo created the Seirei Kata, and Cologne of the Joketsuzoku taught me and we took it all and made the Redeemed School."

She paused and thought.

"Joketsuzoku is almost as old as you chakra-wielders," he said. "An most of the chi-schools come out of it to some degree."

"I'm going to guess that Anything Goes isn't a good school to deal with," Tsume noted. "Or you wouldn't be calling your school the Redeemed school."

"Yeah," Ranma said. "Happosai wasn't interested in really teaching heirs and successors. He wants to live forever, I think. An he just teaches people that he can make use out of. He just about forces people down the path of false mastery. Pops and old man Tendo lucky. An he really didn't like it when he realized that the fighters of my generation had started correcting all the flaws he'd taught our teachers."

She frowned silently.

"We had a war for...two or three years that started while you were having the third Ninja War," she explained. "It lasted until just about the time we heard the kyuubi was seen. It just kept getting bigger and had so many sides until it was just Happosai and Pops against all the rest of us."

Ryoko froze with a piece of meat half-way to her mouth, successfully drawn from some plate other than her own. And then the morsel was taken out of her chopsticks.

"Y..you fought against our f..father?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," Ranma said. "He wouldn't go against Happosai, so he went against the rest of us. And he didn't like being passed up either."

"And he's still alive?" Joseibi asked.

"There were circumstances," Ranma said, thinking of the hostages Happosai had revealed. "And we forced their surrender, but it had conditions on our side. One of those was that Pops was forbidden from teaching anybody."

"B...but th..that does n..not mean fa...family does it?" Ryoko asked.

"Especially family," Ranma said firmly. "I lived through that, and I didn't want anybody else having to ever even imagine that crap...never thought I'd have young siblings to watch out for. He and Mom vanished a bit after the end of the war, so he must have known you were coming and already been planning on breaking his agreement. Shouldn't be surprised, that's all he ever did."

"Wh..what?" Ryoko gasped. "F..father al..always kept his promises."

"I spent four years of my life trying to untangle my love life because the guy engaged me at least three times to different people," Ranma said through half-lidded eyes. "Anyway, there's some ninja outside about to ask me to come with them, think I can get some hot water so I can go talk to your boss the right gender?"

"Hey, didn't our Mom have something to say about the girl thing?" Joseibi asked.

"Yeah, there was a seppuku contract Pops tricked me into signing when I was about three," Ranma said. "But she eventually said I'd fulfilled the contract and ignored the curse."

Joseibi stared at the red-head in disbelief.

"B..but, seppuku is an important tr...tradition," Ryoko protested weakly.

"It's a stupid tradition," Ranma returned.

"Told you so," Kiba said crossing his arms smugly as Ryoko glared at him in one of her rare moments of clear annoyance.

* * *

* * *

"I think that is all, Naruto-kun," Hinata said as she bagged up the last of the rotted eggs and old milk that they'd found about Naruto's apartment.

If Hinata didn't know better, it would have looked to her like someone came into Naruto's apartment and pulled all of the food in his refrigerator out into the room to rot. It certainly didn't make sense that he would do that, he was pretty frugal and careful with his food. In fact he didn't keep much food that could rot. The food was mostly instant ramen and a few things to add to it.

All the add-tos however were rotting.

But who would go to that sort of effort just to make Naruto waste food and make his room smell. That was a bit different than just harassing him when he was present.

She watched Naruto experimentally pull his mask down and take a sniff.

"Yeah, it really doesn't smell as bad any more," he said. "Uh, don't take your mask off yet, though, Hinata-chan."

"All right," Hinata said, taking her hand away from her mask and watching as Naruto left out the door to take the trash down to the cans.

She waited in the small apartment nervously pushing her fingers together and blushing as she kept thinking about the fact that she was in Naruto's apartment right now and helping him clean it up.

It was almost heaven.

"Well, what's this?" a man's voice said behind her, and she turned about suddenly to see a very strange looking man coming in through Naruto's window. "Does the little brat have a girlfriend?"

Hinata flushed brightly and held out her hands.

"No!" she said quickly. "I mean...Naruto's not a brat, he is very kind."

"And what about the girlfriend thing?" the old man asked.

"Uh...uh...uh.." Hinata said, the color in her cheeks rising quickly. "Maybe?"

"Ah, Ero-sennin," Naruto called out. "What happened to you, aren't I supposed to be your student and I haven't seen you since the whole giant toad thing!"

"Hmph," the old man said, apparently mildly offended. "I am Jiraiya, the Toad Sage! Not 'ero-sennin'."

"Ji..Jiraiya-sama!" Hinata said. "One of the Sannin?"

"See, kid, your girlfriend here knows who I am," Jiraiya said.

"Huh, wha...Hinata-chan's n..." Naruto stopped as hand covered his mouth and the old man started whispering quietly to him.

"I'm going to stop you there, kid," Jiraiya said with a smirk before looking over his shoulder at Hinata and winking at her perplexed expression. "Consider it a favor."

Then he stepped back and moved to sit heavily on the bed.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Naruto shouted as his mouth was released and he then turned to Hinata. "Uhh...Hinata-chan...sorry about him, he's kinda a pervert and...really, I hope you're not..um, upset."

"Wh..why would I be mad?" Hinata asked.

"Probably because he thinks girls hit him when he suggests the term girlfriend," Jiraiya said in a teasing tone.

"Yea...I mean, no!" Naruto said.

"See," Jiraiya said, still teasing. "He probably had a crush on some violent girl before he met you."

"Sakura," Hinata said quietly with a slight frown.

"Gah! What are you here for, Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked.

"I was wondering if you want to go on a mission with me," Jiraiya said. "But if you're busy..."

"What kind of mission, peeping on girls?" Naruto asked severely.

After a moment, he looked over toward Hinata and stepped over in front of her, bringing a smirk to Jiraiya's face and an increased blush to Hinata's.

"Actually, we're going to be looking for someone specific," Jiraiya said.

"Who is that?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya looked around with a smirk, and let himself linger a bit on the wall that separated Naruto's apartment from the Suna ninja on the other side. She might be more or less exiled from her home, but she hadn't stopped being Suna despite that.

"Maybe later," he said. "In any case, since I have to do this favor for the Hokage, I was wondering if maybe you'd be interesting in helping me out and maybe getting a chance to learn a technique or two on the way."

"If you're looking for someone," Hinata noted very carefully raising her hand. "I am trained to be part of a search team..."

She almost fainted at her boldness despite how good she'd gotten at controlling those recently. But that would give her the chance to be closer to Naru...help out with this mission that the Hokage had set the legendary Sannin Jiraiya.

Jiraiya frowned at that, a Hyuuga would be useful, but he'd have to check with the old man first.

"I'll have to see about that," he said eventually.

* * *

* * *

"Excuse me a moment," Akane said, standing up. "Do you mind if I take a break for a moment."

"I'm sure you have things you want to say to your husband, Saotome-sensei," Hiruzen said.

Akane froze in mid motion and looked over towards him, the question to how the old man knew what she'd been thinking clear on her face for a moment.

Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled back at her and smoked his pipe idly for a moment before speaking.

"IF you haven't noticed," he said pointing to his hat. "Hokage."

"Right," Akane noted a bit embarrassed. "Somehow, I'm always forgetting how dangerous old martial artists are."

The others in the room looked toward her and the Hokage wondering what the exchange was. Well, except for Kodachi who continued sipping her tea before turning toward Mokya and casually gesturing.

"Master Ranma is coming," Mokya explained.

Kiima frowned and shuffled nervously in her seat at that.

"And how did she know that?" Akane asked frowning.

Kodachi cleared her throat in a manner that Mokya recognized as basically "run with it."

"I have to remind you," Mokya said. "That Mistress Kodachi is blind and sharpening her chi senses is one of the few things she can do constantly. That said...I'm not really sure how she knows either."

Akane rolled her eyes and turned to leave the room, seeing Ranma coming up the hallway escorted by a pair of Anbu that felt like they were around jonin rank.

Ranma looked back toward them and held out his hand to ask for a bit of privacy as he walked ahead of the masked ninja to meet with Akane, kissing her lightly on the lips as they came together.

"Well?" Akane asked expectantly, but with a trace of a smile.

"It looks like your going to have at least one ninja for a sister-in-law," Ranma said with a nod. "What's up."

"Liberation of Musk," Akane said. "Kodachi's hired Konoha and Kiima is fuming."

"As long as she doesn't start drowning people," Ranma said.

"Or brainwashing them," Akane added. "Do you sometimes think Mousse married her out of spite for Xian Pu?"

"I don't know, but I wouldn't say that to her face," Ranma said. "Or Mousse's. Or Xian Pu's."

"How's your mother," Akane asked quietly.

"She's probably dying," Ranma said slowly. "And from what they say about what the poison's done, it's probably best that she doesn't wake up for it."

"Poison, who would do such a thing to a person," Akane wondered. "Feed them something to drive them slowly insane."

"The pills were in a bag with Nabiki's mark," Ranma said reluctantly.

"Nabiki is dead," Akane said firmly. "And I'm not saying that she wouldn't do something like this if there was something in it for her."

"I'm the one she tried to sell into prostitution once," Ranma noted. "I think I know."

"She did sell you, Ranma," his wife corrected. "You just were a little bit stronger than they thought you'd be. Maybe some of her people are still operating her organization?"

"Maybe," Ranma said. "Hate to say it, but..."

"Yeah, I know," Akane said. "We knew what she was when we hired her to do our intelligence work for us. Should have been satisfied with Konatsu and Kodachi."

"Well, that was before Kodachi was a student," Ranma said. "And before she started trying to control herself, so...crazy-smart or evil-smart..."

"Ranma, whatever she was, she was still my sister," Akane noted firmly.

"Yeah, I'll avoid the 'e' word," Ranma said nodding.

"How do we handle this Musk thing?" Akane asked.

"From what I've heard," Ranma said grimmly. "They made an unprovoked attempt to kidnap one or more of my sisters...I think we're going on for the ride."

"Good," Akane said, nodding. "I was hoping you'd say that."

* * *

* * *

"Sharingan," Kurumi repeated with a frown. "I've heard of it, but never realized it could be used to learn how to channel chi."

"In all honesty," Kakashi said. "I don't think anybody's wanted to up to now."

"When we faced the witch in that village," Sasuke explained, "I was almost incapacitated just from being near her because I'm apparently balanced toward yin. It was a weakness that needed to be addressed."

It was a matter of fact description of his motivation that implied that they didn't need to look into it further.

Then he frowned.

"I'd hoped it would be enough to beat Ryoko," he said idly.

"It was, you missed a couple of chances," Kakashi noted.

"The surest sign of that was that you pressured her enough to come up with something new," Kurumi noted.

"Something new?" Sasuke said. "Kasai kaeri?"

"I heard something from Gai about that," Kakashi said. "I was wondering if you'd explain?"

"As soon as she learns a technique," Kurumi said, "she'll break it down to its components. Push her into a corner..."

"And she'll change the pieces around," Kakashi said. "And on the fly, something new. Born masters of inventing new techniques."

"It just comes to them," Kurumi said. "At sixteen Ranma Saotome learned a technique that has, for three thousand years, had a single, narrow point of use. Within six months, he had created at least three variations of it, all in the middle of battle. Even his mistakes get turned into effective techniques when he figures out what caused the mistake."

"They have to learn the principle first, though," Kakashi said.

"And she's learned one technique," Sasuke wondered. "The tree-climbing technique and how does that translate to breaking wires?"

"What happens when you use too much chakra in tree-climbing," Kakashi asked.

"It breaks the bark and forces you...oh," Sasuke said. "And the essential task is to stick to the tree...and she stuck to the fire."

"That said," Kurumi noted, looking from the young man toward Kakashi. "He shouldn't be learning from Kodachi without her knowing about it."

"Can you say particularly why?" Kakashi asked.

"Is this rehearsed?" Sasuke asked suspiciously as he noted the clean endings and beginnings of their speech, not talking over each other at all.

Both the elder warriors turned and smiled toward him, at least it looked like Kakashi was smiling under his mask.

"Kodachi's mind is unhealthy," Kurumi said. "The methods she takes to deal with it are rather extreme. Someone copying her completely would risk going down the path of a false master."

"Think about trying to wear a pair of glasses when your eyesight is just fine," Kakashi noted. "The glasses are designed to correct damaged eyesight, but eyesight that is already good is not improved, but damaged. Medicine for one person is poison for another."

"And it is worse than that," Kurumi said. "We channel chi, what flows through is is changed by us. If we are corrupt then we corrupt everything around us. You've already seen that with that witch you talked about earlier."

"Ryoko talks about a 'heaviness'" Sasuke noted curiously. "And I've felt that."

"That's when the chi is being forced unnaturally and is fighting against what is forcing it," Kurumi said.

"So if you're strong enough you can make chi do whatever you want?" Sasuke asked. "Without having to change yourself?"

"According to him and what you've just said you've seen what happens then," Kurumi said. "First you go mad, then you break. The the world is back to the way it 'wants' to be."


	39. Assignments

Kankuro had been surprised when he found the Konoha shadow user in the apartment that his sister had been assigned to. The fact that the surprisingly powerful blonde was next door was even more so. Like Gaara, he hadn't been able to stay long due to the fact that the Suna contingent was leaving soon, but he'd been there long enough to hear something of Shikamaru's news for Temari.

"So why are you really here," Temari had asked in an overtone in order to hear as much as possible of the next door conversation through the wall. "It can't be just to remind me about the fact my people are leaving and I'm staying."

She wasn't the only one staying, there had been about ten more people that the elders may have thought were compromised. The fact that she was the last Kazekage's daughter had made her own assignment to this "embassy" a bit harsher in her perspective, more like they were taking opportunities to weaken her brothers at home.

"Yeah, well," Shikamaru said. "It's a bit troublesome, I'd asked Asuma-sensei if he'd talk to you, but he thinks I'd have a bit better interactions with you somehow."

"That's something of a stretch," Temari said, crossing her arms as she looked at the younger ninja.

"Exactly my thoughts," Shikamaru said, "but the message is even more troublesome."

"What's that?" Kankuro had asked.

"Since my teammate is going off with you guys," Shikamaru said.

"Talk about troublesome," Kankuro said, rolling his eyes as he thought of Ino.

"Really, you have no idea," the shadow-user said, "but anyway, that leaves my team one short, so Konoha is requesting that Temari fill in that hole."

Temari blinked and her jaw dropped. Working with an active genin team on a regular basis? That meant a peak at Konoha's standard operations and possibly a few deep operational secrets over time. On the other hand, it would pull her away from the day to day in Konoha and the ability to monitor minute changes in it's operation.

Why the hell would they risk putting her in that position knowing she hadn't told them more than three items of only limited use while under the effect of that drug?

Having her on a team would mean constantly being concerned she might betray an operation if an opposing client had hired Suna to counter Konoha.

"So, what, that makes you my team member now?" Temari asked.

"Assuming you accept," Shikamaru said resignedly. "Or you can sit around and be a functionary liaison. Personally, that's probably the least troublesome option."

"For you or me?" Temari asked, narrowing her eyes.

"For me, I'm losing one hard edged woman for another," Shikamaru noted.

The fan user smirked.

"That kaleidoscope eyed blonde has nothing on me for being hard edged," she said with cynical pride, trying to see the trap in this.

Shikamaru snorted and nodded.

"We'll see about that," he said. "Is that an answer?"

"It's better to be an active ninja," Temari said. "Sharpening my skills than to let them rust behind a desk somewhere."

"Yeah, I thought you'd say something like that," Shikamaru noted with a burdensome sigh as he handed over a scroll, "next team meeting is going to be tomorrow."

He straightened up and nodded at her and Kankuro.

"Hope you have a nice safe trip," the shadow user said to the puppeteer.

"We'll see," Kankuro said as Shikamaru shrugged and left, waiting until the Konoha ninja was likely out of earshot before continuing. "You lost to that guy?"

"Not technically," Temari grumbled.

"You're going to be running missions with them?" Kankuro asked. "Why would they risk that? Do you know what the council will think?"

"What they already think," Temari said. "It doesn't make sense, I didn't say anything, they just talked to me for the most part, probably used me as an example to pry more information out of someone else."

"Even if they had gotten anything, this wouldn't make sense," Kankuro said. "You don't give a proven traitor access to anything remotely sensitive."

She frowned then.

"But in their eyes, I'm a proven loyal Sunagakure ninja," she muttered. "Wait. Proven loyal."

"What was that?" Kankuro asked.

"Nevermind," she said. "Just watch Gaara's back, the council is trying to keep him isolated I think."

Kankuro frowned, his brother's recent apology was fresh in his mind, and the young man's behavior was definitely different, but he wasn't sure how long that would last yet.

"I'll keep an out for them and this girl," he said nodding.

Then he was leaving, probably such that he'd be the last returning Suna to join the others.

Temari crossed her arms and moved to the window to look out on the village and listen to the rest of the conversation between the sannin Jiraiya and her neighbor.

"Proven loyal," she thought.

Could that be it? They felt she was safe to use because she'd proven she wouldn't give up her people?

* * *

* * *

"For now," Ibiki said coldly. "You're given a status as a freelancing mercenary. You are not going to be given a headband or the privileges that come with it."

Sakura winced and resisted the urge to slump her shoulders in the man's presence, or to look at Anko standing some degrees behind her.

Technically, Ibiki Morino and Anko Mitarashi were of the same rank, special jonin, but Ibiki's position as head of the interrogation squad generally gave him a bit more influence than Anko, who performed a variety of tasks.

"You will get a stipend, however," the man continued. "And pay for each mission. And you'll be watched."

"I know...Morino-sama," she said. "Anko-sensei keeps a close eye on me."

"There will be others as well," Ibiki said.

"What?" Sakura snapped. "You don't trust Anko-Sensei?"

Anko sighed and straightened up shaking her head as Ibiki glared at Sakura.

"This doesn't have anything to do with Anko," Ibiki said sharply as he took in the pink-haired girl's fierce look at the perceived insult to Anko. "It has everything to do with you."

"She's not going to give you anymore cause to worry about her," Anko said idly.

"It's a matter of how much choice she has," Ibiki noted grimly.

* * *

* * *

Hinata stopped at the gates to her home cautiously. Over the past week or so, neither she nor her father had been in the house at the same time when both were awake. And Neji had been in the hospital for that same period of time.

Because of her.

However, she still had to talk to her family given what she had just offered to help Jiraiya with.

She also had to speak to Kurenai, but the kunoichi was apparently busy at the moment with her own reports and assignments.

In fact, she had been planning on avoiding the house with work again until she was ready to sleep and thus avoid seeing her family. At the moment, at the edge of the grounds, she couldn't be certain if eyes were not already on her or not.

"Hinata," a stern voice said behind her, provoking her into jumping out of surprise before she turned about to see her father walking beside her cousin.

"Oh, uh, Father," she said nervously. "Neji-ni-san, you're both h..here."

"You were confident enough in the ring, Hinata-sama," Neji said grimly. "Are you letting that fade already?"

"I am not," Hinata said firmly, narrowing her eyes.

"There is something you wish to ask..no, tell me," Hiashi said. "Let's go inside and discuss matters."

Hinata pushed her fingers together nervously as her father and cousin walked past her and she fell into step behind them, just naturally. The slow pace was note worthy as Neji was still minutely favoring the side where Hinata had sliced him open.

Most people wouldn't have noticed it, but it was harder to hide such things from a Hyuuga, even when you were a Hyuuga.

They were sitting down in the grand audience chamber when Hinata paused and moved to get the tea set and start brewing some for the discussion.

"The sannin Jiraiya is seeking Tsunade to call her back to the village for some reason," Hinata said quietly finally. "I offered to be part of the mission."

Neji turned to look at his cousin in surprise.

"The sannin," Hiashi said questionably. "You've proven yourself better than you had been, but if you intend to deal with the legendary sannin, you will face a greater degree of task than what you've faced yet. You cannot let yourself slack off or return to your old ways in that regard."

"I...I know," Hinata said.

"There will be greater dangers involved than you've likely ever imagined," her father said. "They are not likely to face tasks meant for genin. What is your reason for volunteering?"

"Because..." she stopped with a blush and then continued. "Because Naruto is going."

Neji glowered briefly and sipped his tea as his uncle quietly considered the matter.

"Neji informed me that you have an interest in the Uzumaki boy," Hiashi said, as if the fact of that matter wasn't a publicly demonstrated issue.

"Yes," Hinata said, blushing and pushing her fingers together as usual.

However, there was no uncertainty to her voice like there had been in the past. The awkwardness was just embarrassment and habit for the most part at the moment.

"There some things you should know before you consider that," Hiashi said. "There are limits on what I can tell you right now, but I can speak of some of the effects as you are concerned."

"He's a peasant," Neji noted emotionlessly, though Hinata noted that there was no rancor in his voice.

"As I told Hanabi," he said. "The Uzumaki are a branch of the Senju family."

Both Neji and Hinata's eyes widened, Hinata's more so than her cousin's.

"Then..." Hinata said. "There is no problem?"

Hiashi raised a hand up to forestall further comment and wondered about whether or not he should broach the deeper topics of Naruto Uzumaki.

The fact that Uzumaki's children might be called on to take up the task that he had right now. Which would mean a shortened lifespan for whoever did so, not that it would be noticed given the incredible lifespan most of the Uzumaki had, but there were the other concerns.

The hosts were usually socially separate from most people, Naruto and his mother were exceptions to that rule, and the demon would try to influence them their entire life. Only a handful of hosts ever successfully mastered the power to a level of safety.

If Hinata pushed this match and succeeded, then she would have to face the fact that one of her own children might suffer as Naruto had. It was likely worse in some ways than the lives of either family of the Hyuuga clan.

"There are many problems you might face," Hiashi settled on saying finally. "But you'll have to find those on your own."

Hinata wanted to press further, sensing that there was something that her father wasn't telling her, but quietly backed down from that decision.

"I will expect to hear that you have proven instrumental in the success of Jiraiya-sama's mission," Hiashi said finally.

Hinata blinked in confusion for a moment.

"I believe you need to ready yourself for the trip," he said. "Head to your room now. I have some business with your cousin that is between us alone."

"Hai!" Hinata said, standing up and bowing before leaving the room quickly in order to prepare.

* * *

* * *

Joseibi panted as she arrived behind her sister at the entrance of the central building of Konoha. Ryoko was still walking at a swift pace.

Things had been going fairly well until Kurenai showed up to talk to Kiba as Joseibi and Ryoko were heading out toward their tone.

The jonin had indicated that Naruto, Hinata, Kiba and Sasuke were all being sent on missions while Ryoko was apparently off the active duty list.

Which had lead to a rather distraught Ryoko moving from place to place trying to track down Kakashi. Joseibi was wondering just how Ryoko could move so fast when she looked like she was just walking.

This was apparently where Kakashi was, according to the last person that had seen him at least. And Ryoko paused only a moment to bite her lip and wipe some of the sweat from her forehead before stepping into the building.

Joseibi watched that as she collected her breath.

"Onechan is tired?" she said.

Ryoko herself flashed through a pair of hand signs to clear the chakra out of the way of her chi and looking for Kakashi's presence. She felt her younger sister a little bit behind still and was glad to know Joseibi was fine, though she still wished that her sister had stayed with the Inuzuka or gone on home.

Finally, she turned a corner to find Kakashi speaking to what looked like that phoenix woman's human disguise, though the hair and clothes looked much more normal.

Ryoko took one step forward, thought for a moment and then took another. After another thought, she took two more steps forward and stood their quietly waiting for Kakashi to turn around to look at her.

She was a bit surprised when the woman turned to look at her.

"This must be one of the girls," the woman said in a much friendlier tone of voice than that phoenix woman ever used.

"Hmm?" Kakashi said, turning about as if he hadn't considered Ryoko's presence until just that moment. "Yeah, that's them, hey Ryoko."

"He...hello Kakashi-sensei," Ryoko said, bowing quickly before looking toward the woman. "Umm...su..sumima..masen, I...I do not know your n..name."

Akane arched an eyebrow at the odd image of the stuttering black-haired girl in front of her who looked very much like a young version of her husband's girl form, but acted quiet a bit different.

"You can call me Akane," the woman said with a smile.

Ryoko looked at her and blinked for a moment.

"Ano..." she said. "Akane-sama..."

"No, Akane," the woman insisted.

"Akane-sa" Ryoko tried to say.

"Just Akane," Akane repeated

"Akane-s..."

"Uh!" the woman snapped quickly, stopping Ryoko from finishing the honorific. "Repeat after me. A"

"A..a..." Ryoko said nervously.

"Ka," the woman noted.

"Ka," the young girl repeated.

"Ne," the woman finished.

"Ne?" Ryoko said.

"Akane."

"Akane," Ryoko repeated.

"That's right," Akane said.

"...san?" the young martial artist tried experimentally. She spoke the honorific gingerly as if she was risking giving offense.

Akane blinked and slumped forward as Kakashi laughed at her side.

"Ryoko-chan, you don't need to use an honorific like that with me," Akane said.

"Ano?" Ryoko responded, blinking.

Joseibi arrived then and folded her arms as she caught her breath.

"Are we done running around then?" she asked. "This is your jonin-sensei right? And aren't you that wing..."

The young blonde sniffed at the air then and frowned a bit.

"You don't smell like that annoying b..."

"Imouto-chan," Ryoko said quietly, drawing the younger girls attention.

Akane glanced at the subtle expression of disapproval on Ryoko's face and nodded. She definitely recognized Nodoka's influence in that glance.

"Sorry about that," Joseibi said quickly. "But who are you?"

"I'm your sister-in-law," Akane said.

Ryoko's jaw dropped about an inch as her face paled and she bowed low and quickly.

"Su...sumimasen, Ak..." she stopped and continued. "Oneesama. I sh..should have reali..."

Akane's eyes widened a bit and she held a nervous smile until she could step forward to clap Ryoko on the shoulders slightly and pulling her to a straight position.

"Hey, there," the woman said quickly. "It's not a problem, you haven't done anything wrong."

"Ano..." Ryoko said.

"She worries about that stuff like that all the time," Joseibi said. "So you're married to our brother, right?"

"Right," Akane said.

"You know he turns into a girl right?" Joseibi noted.

"I think that explains the red-head I see wearing his clothes from time to time," Akane said dryly.

She kept any other sign of her frustration off of her face for the moment, really, what was it about people that they felt a need to point stuff out like that.

* * *

* * *

Ino turned to look at one of the Sunagakure ninja staring at her face and blushed slightly at the discovery. Of course someone so outright beautiful as her would attract attention like that. Too bad it was one of these Suna creeps and not Sasuke.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked.

"Did you know that one of your eyes has a strange pattern to it?" he asked.

"Are you calling my eye ugly?" Ino demanded angrily.

Kankuro stared at the developing scene and sighed.

"Do you think she's realized that this is the fourth time someone has asked that question?" he wondered out loud. "She has to know they're provoking her on purpose now."

* * *

* * *

"Did you have something to ask me?" Kakashi asked as Akane responded to Joseibi.

"Ano?" Ryoko started to ask. "Oh..oh, y..yes, Yuuhi-sama s..said that I am not on active duty? Th..that Uzumaki-san and Uchiha-san a..are going on missions and I...I'm not?"

"That's right," Kakashi said.

"But I'm...I am...out of the hospital," Ryoko protested. "I c...can fight."

Akane shook her head in wonderment at the extent to which the girl was disappointed that she wouldn't be going into battle. A stuttering, battle-thirsty moe blood knight.

It was an...odd combination of traits.

"You're still not ready for full duty, and the doctors told you as much," the masked ninja reminded her. "Your Kishu Osore technique left burns over most of your body, and the surface damage is still somewhat visible."

He pointed toward where some bandages wrapped around her arms under her sleeves.

"The deeper tissue damage is still healing," Kakashi said. "And your chakra coils are still recovering as well. Most people would still be in the hospital after what you put yourself through. And in your case, you're already winded with just looking for me."

"Ano..." Ryoko said quietly. "I..I could heal on the way."

"You'd slow down the arrival of the team," Kakashi noted.

"What sort of technique is this?" Akane asked seriously.

"Ano," Ryoko said, looking between Kakashi and Akane. "Father said ih...it is supposed to help co...control a p..person's fear."

"She blows up if she gets scared," Joseibi summarized.

Akane's eyes narrowed as she heard that description.

"One of _those_ techniques," she said bitterly and looking toward Joseibi. "Does Ranma know about this?"

"Ih..it did n...not come up," Ryoko said.

"Anyway," Kakashi said. "I'm here in town too, and with Naruto and Sasuke out on their own tasks, I'd be a poor jonin-instructor not to have any genin..."

"Genin," Akane said, frowning and then looking over Ryoko for a headband. "Ranma said 'going to be' not 'is'."

"Actually, I misspoke," Kakashi said. "Ryoko hasn't been offered a headband yet, she's acting as a mercenary. But Joseibi's in the academy."

"Yeah," Joseibi said. "Probably four years from having a steel-plated fashion accessory to advertise to everybody that I'm a master of being not-seen."

"Imouto-chan," Ryoko said in a nervous tone of voice.

Then she paused and her face took on a thoughtful pose.

"Yeah, these are born Saotomes all right," Akane said under her breath.

"Wait," Ryoko said. "Y..yet?"

* * *

* * *

Jiraiya paused outside the Hokage's office as he saw a man in his thirties standing outside patiently. The man felt extraordinarily normal.

Most people might have taken it to mean that there was nothing special about the man, but Jiraiya had seen enough chi masters to know that the stronger they were, the more they fit in to the world around them.

Strong chakra was a bit different, though one could learn to hide one's power over time.

Still, the man wasn't apparently a threat given the way the chunin were more or less relaxed outside of Hiruzen's office. He turned toward Naruto then and pointed toward one of the walls.

"I need to talk to the old man a bit first myself," he said. "Wait here a bit will you?"

"Eh," Naruto said. "Why do I have to wait out here?"

"Cause there's some stuff I need to talk to my old teacher about some personal stuff," the old man said. "And it would be a bit awkward to have a little kid hanging around for such grown up stuff."

The man sitting against the wall snorted at the comment.

"Uh huh," Naruto said, frowning and crossing his arms. "Whatever."

That said, he did move over to wait as Jiraiya went into the office, leaving Naruto to stand across from the man in the simple red jacket and pants. He didn't see a headband so, even with his experience of late, he immediately assumed somebody there to hire a mission team.

"That your master then?" the man asked, jabbing his thumb to the door closing behind Jiraiya.

"Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked. "Yeah, he's taught me a few things."

"Ero-sennin," the man repeated. "What is it about old martial arts masters and being perverts? I wonder if I'm going to suddenly change into a pervert when I hit fifty or something."

"Wait, you're a martial artist?" Naruto said. "I have a friend who calls herself that. Let's see, are you one of Kodachi-sensei's friends?"

"She'd probably call me 'Master'," the other said. "Name's Ranma. What's yours?"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said proudly, jabbing a thumb into his chest. "And one of these days I'm going to be in that room wearing the Hokage's hat."

"Oh, got a prank planned or something to steal the hat?" Ranma asked with a smirk.

"No, I'm going to be Hokage!" Naruto insisted loudly. "I'm going to be the best ninja anybody's ever seen and nobody's going to stop me from being the best."

"Man, does that sound familiar," Ranma said, shaking his head. "So, how many techniques have you made so far?"

"Well, I've got one jutsu that's all my own," Naruto said proudly. "And it beats just about everyone I've used it on."

"Oh really," Ranma said. "What technique is that?"

Naruto smirked and took a deep breath.

"Sexy no jutsu!" he called out before vanishing in a cloud of smoke for a moment before reappearing as a naked blonde woman who looked about twenty. Her hair was in pigtails and strategically placed streams of smoke covered most of her intimate bits.

The chunin guards down the hallway coughed and choked as they grabbed at their noses.

Ranma merely stared dryly for a moment with narrowed eyes and then leaned over to flick Naruto in the forehead painfully and popping the illusion as a result.

"What the hell?" Naruto snapped rubbing his forehead. "Why didn't that work?"

"Boy, I can look in the mirror for sexier women," Ranma said with a smirk.

* * *

* * *

"So, I'm the only member of my team that isn't on medical leave," Tenten said as they walked into the building where they were told they'd be meeting with Kurenai to receive the mission specs. "What about you two?"

Shino and Sasuke grimaced, or at least she thought Shino did, and quietly stared past her most recent attempt to make conversation.

"Boy, you kids are really tight-lipped," the weapons specialist said, shaking her head and ignoring the fact that she was just one year older. "Can't I get a little bit of a conversation out of you?"

"Kakashi's said that Naruto has his own mission," Sasuke said directly.

"Kiba will be here shortly," Shino noted. "But Hinata is going to also be on the same mission as Naruto."

Then they were both silent again.

Tenten produced her own frustrated grimace and shook her head.

"Are we all that's going, I wonder," Tenten asked in a pondering tone. "Kurenai-sama didn't exactly say what we were going to be doing."

"It seems obvious," Shino noted. "Given the people that I have seen Kurenai-sensei talking to the past few days."

"Pretend some of us haven't seen that," Tenten noted with narrowed eyes.

"There have been several interviews with Kodachi of the Musk as well as that Kurumi Tendo," Shino noted. "It would seem that we will be taking punitive action against these Musk raiders."

"What do you mean you've seen sexier girls in the mirror?" a familiar voice demanded. "I've been perfecting this jutsu for over a year and it's always worked before. Is there something wrong with you maybe?"

They came around a corner to find Naruto yelling at a man who was just sort of shrugging off the tirade.

"You train with a Saotome-Ryu martial artist and that's the best insult you can come up with?" the man asked. "That's a pretty weak Haoto if you ask me."

"Hot toe?" Naruto repeated in confusion for a moment. "Oh, right, Haoto no Suzumebachi. That's where Ryoko does a lot of apologizing and stuff in the middle of a fight. Wait...how did you know about that?"

"Naruto," Sasuke said as he walked up to the scene. "Are you trying to embarrass us?"

"Ehh?" the blonde said blinking.

"Nah, I'm provoking him a little," the man said, looking at Sasuke and then the other two genin. "You're going to have to wait for a bit, there's a meeting of some kind going on in there."

He gestured toward the chunin guards then.

"And who might you be?" Shino asked.

"Ranma," the man said, waving and noting the Uchiha crest on the back of Sasuke's tunic as the young genin passed him a moment to look at the chunin. "I'm one of the Redeemed School masters that's visiting here."

"Ah," Sasuke said turning back to look at him with a knowing smirk. "You'..."

"Yes," Ranma said.

"How do you know what I'm about to ask," Sasuke asked with a frown.

"Good guess," Ranma said. "You're the Uchiha, right?"

Sasuke grimaced at the way his family name was tossed out as a description in the same sort of manner that someone might say "the tiger" or "the rabbit."

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha," he confirmed.

Ranma nodded and looked on towards the other two without much note.

"And you guys also know Ryoko?" he asked.

"Not well, no," Shino said. "She spends a lot of time with both my teammates, however."

"Ah, would that include a kid with a puppy?" Ranma asked, holding out his hands to indicate the approximate size of Akamaru.

"Kiba, yes," Shino said.

"What's going on," Naruto asked.

"Don't look at me," Tenten said, shrugging.

"They're realizing that I'm Ryoko's brother," Ranma said.

Naruto gasped and pointed across at the man.

"More of her crazy relatives?" Naruto gasped.

"You know kid," Ranma said. "You could do with a bit of calming down."

"Whatever," Sasuke said. "I'm here for a mission briefing. I don't have time for this."

He started to turn around to walk toward the door and frowned as he felt a hand clap on his shoulder. The trace of chi that he knew now should have been the intent to move came trickling in a moment later. It was almost as if the man had moved before his intent developed.

"Like I said earlier," Ranma noted. "They've got a meeting in there, and it's not the best for the students to interrupt their masters at talk."

He turned back to look at the other three genin who apparently had noticed nothing more than him stepping forward to clap Sasuke on the shoulder and a I moderately wide-eyed Sasuke staring forward in surprise.

"So what can you tell me about my sister," Ranma asked.


	40. Leavetaking

"Okay," Akane said, attracting the girl's attention. "Ryoko-chan, do you think you can do me a favor."

"Ano...Oneesama," Ryoko asked.

"Think you can call me Akane?" she asked.

"Hai, Akane Oneesama," Ryoko said.

"Akane," the older martial artist corrected before turning toward Kakashi and Joseibi. "I just did this right?"

"Hai, Akane Oneesama," Ryoko said looking a bit confused.

"Okay, that really makes me feel silly," Akane said. "Just call me Akane."

"Ano..." Ryoko said, looking confused. "I th...thought I did..."

"No, you called me Akane _oneesama_," the woman said emphatically. "And that makes me feel like a stuck up sister-in-law, so...just Akane."

Kakashi and Joseibi exchanged looks and then turned back to watch the desperate conflict.

"Akane onees.." Ryoko tried again.

"Nope," Akane said. "A. Ka. Ne. No 'sama'."

"Akane-no-Sama?" Ryoko tried.

"That doesn't even make sense," Akane called out. "It's like a bad pun you get from mixing languages."

"Well, the kids these days seem to borrow a foreign word every other sentence," Kakashi noted.

"That's true," Akane said. "I did have a language instructor that used to say shift happens, but still, it just seems random."

"Ah, s..umimasen," Ryoko said, "Akane-Oneesama."

"And we're back to that?" Akane asked. "How many syllables is my name?"

"Three," Ryoko said, holding up three fingers.

"Then why do you keep using seven?" Akane asked.

"Ano..." Ryoko said confused, she looked down at her hand and started counting out fingers. "A. Ka. Ne."

"There you go, Ryoko-chan," Akane said proudly.

"Hai," Ryoko said. "Thank you, Akane-Oneesama."

Akane closed her eyes and gritted her teeth together as one of her eyebrows twitched irritably and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Give up now," Joseibi said in a creepy voice. "Going forward is to face doom."

"Ano?" Ryoko asked, raising a finger to her mouth.

"No, no way am I going to go the rest of my life as 'oneesama' to my brother's younger sister," Akane said in a determined voice. "Ryoko, drop the honorific, just call me Akane and nothing else."

"Ano...th..that would be dis..disrespectful," Ryoko protested.

"Just try it," Akane said, returning to a kind and gentle tone, though her eyes were still narrowed in focus.

"Akane," Ryoko said, pausing for a moment as Akane looked hopeful, "Onee...san?"

"Akane," the older martial artist insisted.

Kakashi and Joseibi sat there and watched the exchange, twisting their necks one way then another.

"Akane Onee-dono?" Ryoko tried.

"That's even worse," Akane protested, trying to keep her voice from twisting to something of a growl. "All right, Ryoko, you're currently learning from Kodachi, who is a disciple and there for the lowest teacher rank and she is my student, that makes you my student as well."

"H...hai," Ryoko asked nervously.

"Then, as your Master, I insist you call me Akane," Akane said. "Simply Akane."

"Hai...Akane-Sensei," Ryoko said.

"No, Akane, no title or honorific," the Saotome by marriage insisted.

"Akane," Ryoko appeared to think about it for a moment, "Sifu?"

"That's the same as sensei," Akane protested.

"S...sabonim?" Ryoko tried.

"Same thing," Akane repeated.

"Guru?"

"Still the same think," Akane protested sharply.

"Teacher?" Ryoko tried.

"No, not Oneesama, Oneesan, Sensei, Sifu, Sabonim, Guru or Teacher," Akane insisted loudly, though not shouting yet. "Nothing. Just my name, that's all. Simple as that."

"Akane-Oneechan?" Ryoko asked.

Akane sighed and considered that last with hooded eyes.

"How is that less disrespectful?" she muttered.

"Su...sumimasen," Ryoko said. "Akane-Oneesama."

Akane slapped her hand to her forehead.

One muttered comment and she was back starting from scratch.

"They're not likely to give up anytime soon, are they Kakashi-sama?" Joseibi asked.

"Somehow," Kakashi said. "I really don't think so."

* * *

"So the older Hyuuga girl is going with you then?" Hiruzen said. "That'll help find Tsunade quickly enough. Have you told them why they're looking for her?"

"Not yet," Jiraiya said. "I think I'll leave that as a surprise. We'll be leaving as soon as Hinata gets here. These others are heading for those Musk lands? Who's going? If it's okay for me to know."

"Kurenai Yuuhi is leading," Hiruzen said. "With Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Sasuke Uchiha. I also believe that some of the chi-adepts are going. You may have seen one of them out in the hall."

"I did," Jiraiya said. "I almost didn't realize he was a chi-adept at first. But are you sure about this? That leaves Konoha almost wide open, doesn't it? Orochimaru is still out there. And you still have a few prisoners from the Sound and the Musk"

Hiruzen nodded. "It shouldn't take long from what I heard and we still have a few jonin and chunin here to depend on."

"Hmm, should I tell Tsunade why you want her back in the village?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yes, she needs to know," Hiruzen said. "Keep an eye out yourself. You have two students to be aware of now instead of just one."

"Hey now," Jiraiya said. "Since when is it two students?"

"So, you plan to teach Naruto and just ignore Hinata then?" the Hokage asked with a smile.

"I'm going to have my hands full with just the little brat," Jiraiya commented with a sigh.

* * *

Hinata was walking down the hall to meet with Naruto and Jiraiya-sama when she noticed the crowd outside the Hokage's door. Naruto and several other genin around a older man who looked vaguely familiar.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said cheerfully as she moved forward. "Is Jiraiya-sama here?"

"Ah Hinata-chan," Naruto said, waving. "Are you coming then? This is Ryoko-chan's brother, but he's not crazy so far."

"Some people would disagree with that," Ranma noted.

"Yes," she said eagerly as she came up to where Naruto was and then looked to the man that had been talking to them. "Umm, hello, I'm Hinata Hyuuga, I'm sorry if I didn't introduce myself right away."

"That's okay kid," the man said. "Are you two going with us?"

"Nah, we're supposed to go with the Ero-Sennin to find some lady named Tsunade," Naruto said.

"Ah, you all ready for that?" he asked.

"Well, yes," Hinata said, lowering her bag to go through her stuff as if to prove it. "Shuriken, Kunai, wire, rations, the mace-sprayer father told me to bring, medicine, wa...oh!"

As she was taking out her canteen, the container slipped in her hand and flew up into the air where the plastic, apparently brittle, shattered against the wall and drenched the thirty something martial artist.

The water washed over him and he shrank down into a much shorter thirty-something red-head with a bountiful chest who sighed expressively.

"Of course," the woman said in obvious exasperation.

"How'd you perform a henge without producing smoke?" Tenten asked then. "You just sort of melted away."

"It's not a henge," Ranma said irritably. "It's a shape-changing curse."

"Oh," Hinata said. "Like Joseibi-chan."

"Yeah, and for the same reason to, I'll bet," the red-head said. "Though what he went back there for is beyond me, maybe he was hoping for a cure, idiot."

The kids around her looked at the woman in surprise.

"So, you become a woman, completely?" Sasuke asked, a bit surprised.

Tenten stared at the red-head part-time woman's chest and her jaw dropped. She was only thirteen, so it was a bit early to be worrying about the size of her chest, rationally speaking, but it didn't really stop her.

"So not fair," she muttered.

The Hokage's door opened up behind them as they stared.

"Yo, Naruto," Jiraiya called out. "Hinata, are you two...oh ho! What's this?"

Jiraiya stared ahead as he took in Ranma's female form and lunged forward, only to be stopped by a palm to his forehead.

"Hey, old-man," the red-head noted. "Someone else has groping rights here."

"That's not the sort of language a beautiful young woman like yourself should use," Jiraiya said, as he bent around the outstretched hand, to reach out again.

Instead, he found himself avoided and his hands diverted.

"Nimble for an old man," Ranma said as she kicked outward casually.

"Another chi-adept," Jiraiya said with a smile as he recognized the fighting style and almost effortlessly dodged under the kick. "So where's your husband?"

"No husband, buddy," Ranma said casually as the genin scattered around them. "You're Jiraiya, ain't you?"

"That's right, Jiraiya, the toad-sage," the fifty-year old ninja said. "One of the three legendary sannin."

The words came with another attempt to reach out to cop a feel which was as casually blocked as the earlier attempts. Followed by a firm knee up into his face.

"Hey, the sparring's okay and all," Ranma said. "But keep trying to grope me and you'll start to get hurt."

"Start to get hurt?" Jiraiya muttered. "What do you call that knee?"

Hinata stared at the display as it continued and turned to Naruto.

"Is J...Jiraiya-sama trying to grope Saotome-san?" Hinata asked with a mortified tone of voice.

"Ero-Sennin," Naruto said irritably.

Sasuke watched carefully. Neither of the martial artists was being really serious at all despite how fluid and perfect their moves were. Then there was the almost irreverent way they'd turned sparring into a scene that was more fitting a bar.

Ranma was a little bit irritated, but not truly angry and Jiraiya was not really out of control either, but enjoying teasing the younger fighter.

"Please, please," Tenten said. "Tell me Sannin don't act like drunken perverts."

And at that point, Jiraiya saw what he felt was an opening to get a feel of this young woman's chest. Not that he was really serious about it, but she'd turned it into a contest, and he had his pride.

He was less than an inch away from her bountiful bosom when a heavy wooden weight slammed him down into the floor.

"I told you, Ero-Sennin," Ranma said, "Someone else has rights to those."

She took a deep breath and stood up straight leaning dramatically on the hammer she'd pulled from...somewhere.

"Where'd that come from?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah, I used to ask that too," Ranma said.

"Ranma," a voice called out as another woman walked down the hall to come next to the red-head. "What's going on here?"

Behind her, Kakashi was walking down the hall with Ryoko and Joseibi at his side. The younger Saotome holding her hands behind her head.

"Onee...Onii..." Ryoko started to call out to greet her brother...sister...whatever.

"This old man doesn't seem to respect a woman's body," Ranma said.

"That's hardly true," Jiraiya said, sitting up. "A woman's body is the most beautiful thing in the world. But...I do have my pride after all."

Kurenai appeared along with Kiba at about that point.

"Yeah, well, in contest between a man's pride and a woman's dignity," Ranma said. "I can say the woman wins, all else being equal."

"You had to have that beaten into you though," Akane said with a smirk as she moved forward to kiss the red-head's cheek, hugging her as she did so.

Kakashi and Jiraiya's eyes widened suddenly as they stared with greedy eyes for a few seconds.

Further down the hallway, Kurenai rolled her eyes given that there wasn't even something particularly sexual about the display, even if it implied that level of intimacy.

And then Akane took out a canteen from a pocket and poured a bit of hot water over the red-head, who grew almost a foot and became the rugged man he had been before.

And Kakashi and Jiraiya collapsed to the floor, turning completely pale and non-responsive.

"There is so much wrong with this," Shino said.

Kurenai simply stared at the man that had been a woman and then looked down toward Kakashi and Jiraiya and started laughing out loud.

* * *

Jiraiya frowned as he walked out of the town with his two genin beside him and staring at his brilliant red face.

"Why the heck are you so upset?" Naruto asked. "You go ga ga over my Sexy-no-Jutsu all the time and you know I'm a guy."

"Exactly, it's an illusion and I can tell so I can enjoy the show," Jiraiya said. "But it's not fair to actually _be_ a woman part of the time. It's wrong to be able to so fully know the secrets of both sides of humanity."

"Jiraiya-sama," Hinata said hesitantly. "Should I be worried?"

"Nah..." Naruto said. "He talks a perverted game, but that's about it."

"Yeah," Jiraiya said seriously. "I promise you, Hinata-chan, I'm not going to be a problem. But that was still unfair."

* * *

Kurenai walked alongside Ranma and Akane as they headed out of the village.

"So, I have to ask," Kurenai asked quietly as she made sure none of the younger set could overhear her. "Bedroom activities?"

"Variety is the spice of life," Akane said producing something that looked like a tea packet and then letting it vanish again.

"Akane..." Ranma said, blushing brightly.

* * *

Kakashi looked across toward Kurumi and then toward Ryoko. The woman was staying to keep watch on Ryoko and fulfill Kodachi's promise of providing teaching for Ryoko.

Ryoko meanwhile looked out of the gate towards the fading groups of people.

"We can't train too hard yet," Kakashi said, catching Ryoko's attention. "You still have a few injuries."

"She doesn't heal correctly for a chi adept," Kurumi noted stepping forward. "Must be part of the mix of chi and chakra."

"I heal pretty fast," Ryoko protested.

"Not as fast as you should though," Kurumi said.

"Fast healing is normal for chi-use then?" Kakashi asked.

"Fast healing and long life spans," the woman noted. "Happosai is at least three hundred years old. Cologne was about the same when she died."

"Well, that's convenient," Kakashi noted.

"Meanwhile, you ninja can walk on walls and water, shoot fireballs, summon monsters," Kurumi noted, waving her hand a bit. "We have to pull off some pretty intricate set-ups to do a lot of that."

"Ano..." Ryoko said. "W...weren't you talking about training me?"

* * *

"Okay," Asuma said, "Let's start from the beginning. I'm Asuma Sarutobi, I like the colors red, white and black. I dislike seeing people waste their lives. My dream is to beat my student in shogi. My hobbies include smoking and chess. Choji?"

"Hmm," the large young man said. "I'm Choji Akimichi, I like food, I like cooking food. I dislike wasting food. My dream is to marry a woman who is a good cook."

"Gah, this is troublesome," Shikamaru said. "I'm Shikamaru Nara. I like watching clouds. I dislike hard-edged women. My dream is to have a calm life."

"You're joking, right?" Temari asked. "You don't really expect me to do this."

"Pretty much every new team does these introductions," Asuma said. "Just a quick way to get to know each other."

"We don't usually do it with a reshuffled team after final graduation though," Shikamaru noted.

Asuma sighed and glared at Shikamaru for a moment before turning back toward Temari.

"Just humor me," Asuma asked.

"Fine," Temari said. "I'm Temari of the Sand. I like watching plants. I don't like sexist jerks. I hope to have a rematch with a certain lazy shadow-user."

"Wow, Shikamaru," Choji said. "It looks like you've made an impression."

* * *

The border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind was a river, beyond which the great forest of the Land of Fire faded away into long stretch of grasslands with the deserts and badlands of the deeper Land of Wind visible far off into the distance.

The group of traveling shinobi stopped at town that bridged the difference. If they had been traveling for a mission where speed was of the essence, they would have already crossed the river and found a camp site across the way. As it was, they were taking their time.

Like most such towns that sat on the bridge over a natural boundary and two or more countries, there were a number of inns and taverns, and at the moment, two of them were filled with the members of the group returning or moving to the Village of Sand.

Ino, along with the other seven Leaf shinobi going out to act as 'emissaries', was in the dining room of one of those two inns at the moment and looking across the table towards the other Konoha ninja. All of them were older than her and she was the only genin of the lot.

"Regardless of the motivations behind things," one of them said. "This is a good idea. It will make communication easier as suggested."

"It also puts secrets closer at hand to be stolen," another said. "Emissaries are basically spies that you invite into your house in the hopes you learn more from them than they from you."

"That's a cynical way to look at it," the first said.

"These people just attacked our village," another noted. "I think we're due a little cynicism."

"That's true," another noted. "But if the stated mission fails, then any other benefits are lost as well."

"We'll be in Sunagakure soon," another said. "And we'll have to have a plan of action. Ino."

"Yes?" Ino asked, sitting up.

"How much of the Yamanaka arts do you know?" he asked.

"You're seriously asking me how many of my secret family arts I know?" Ino asked.

The jonin in question frowned and leaned forward to look at the girl.

"I'm not asking you to name any of them, just a general measure of ability," he said. "I do appreciate the loyalty to your family, but watch the attitude. I'm not as laid back as Asuma."

"Right," Ino said, nervously. "I know the basics. Father gave me some training in some of the intermediate stuff, but I didn't finish anything yet."

Of course, she did have an instruction scroll which wouldn't make any real sense without the verbal tradition that went with growing up a member of the Yamanaka clan. Without the stories and anecdotes she had growing up, her scroll would amount to a bunch of commentary on different flowers and their care.

The Yamanaka weren't one of the best clans at finding and keeping secrets because they waited until someone was in the Academy to begin teaching them.

"I heard you made a good show of yourself in the chunin exams and the invasion," the jonin said. "So you must know how to use what you got."

"I'm good, all right," Ino said, full of her usual humility.

"Then maybe you'll be good for more than just making coffee," a chunin noted shortly before being smacked in the back of the head by one of the female Konoha ninja.

"What was tha.." he started to ask as Ino flashed through a hand sign.

A moment later, the offending chunin's head was thunking down to the table and spilling his soup all over him. The collected shinobi watched him for two or three seconds before he finally snapped up.

"What the hell?" he demanded. "What did I do?"

"And that was...?" the jonin in charge asked, looking toward Ino.

"Used to be half a jutsu," Ino said with a smirk. "I'm going to go look around, I think I saw a garden or flower shop down the street."

"Be careful," he said. "It's been quite a few days since the battle. There'll be bandits and enemy ninja trying to take advantage of both Suna and Konoha's assumed weakness."

"There are thirty ninja in town right now," Ino said. "Any group of bandits would be crazy to attack now."

"And twenty-two of those ninja were against us in that battle," she was reminded.

Ino shrugged and stretched as she walked out of the door with a calm expression on her face. She walked down the street checking her purse for her current funds as she eyed the flower shop she was heading for.

It was a perfectly ordinary flower shop, like the one that the Yamanaka family operated on the public street in Konoha. People were pretty certain that the Yamanaka had to have some sort of secret stash of herbs and plants that they used in their techniques.

The truth was, sometimes a flower shop really was just a flower ship, even when it was run by ninja.

Ino walked into the building looking around at the flowers and was impressed with the assortment. Which only made sense given that it was at a well-traveled thoroughfare between two major countries and through or past a couple of small ones.

It was a small collection though.

"May I help, Miss?" the owner asked in a kindly tone.

"Hi," she said. "Yeah, do you sell seeds?"

"I carry some of course," the woman said. "What are you looking for?"

"Well, I'll be looking to start a garden in Suna, it looks like," she said. "I've got some seeds for Konoha flowers and I think I'm going to need to some crossbreeding? Or I'm going to have headache after headache each generation. Do you have any desert specimens here?"

"I think I can help you, let me se..." the woman stopped. "Oh my, umm...your eye."

"I got hit in the head, it changed color," Ino said narrowly, eye twitching as she controlled herself from shouting at the civilian.

"Oh, how terrible," the woman said. "I didn't know that could happen."

"About those seeds?" Ino asked.

"Oh, yes of course," the shop-owner said as she moved toward the back of her shop. "Let's see, desert specimens..for crossbreeding you said? That'll take a few generations you know."

"Yeah, my family runs a flower shop," the blonde ninja said.

"Do you think that eye color will be inherited?" the woman asked.

"Just stop talking about the eye, Ma'am," Ino said narrowly.

"I do suppose it could be something of a touchy subject," the woman noted. "Maybe if you wore your hair on the other side it wouldn't be so obvious?"

"My eye is not ugly!" Ino shouted, fuming before getting control of herself. "I'm sorry, can we please just deal with the seeds and finish things?"

"You need to watch that temper, Miss," the woman said with a frown. "Imagine if you found yourself shouting at one of these ninjas passing through."

Ino's jaw dropped and she idly wondered why she was bothering to wear her village's symbol in plain view.

It was a little later before she was half-stomping out of the flower shop with a small supply of seed packets added to the collection stored in one of her several weapons' holsters, in a pocket usually reserved for small, important documents.

She paused as she heard a ruckus coming down the road from the direction of the trees. Looking around, she saw a handful of dirty, ragged men pushing up the street.

"Get out of my way," the man in front snarled, shoving a villager out of his way as he strutted his way down the road. "What do you think some bloody ninja is going to come out and rescue your little town?"

Another snorted and laughed simultaneously and added to that.

"This will be great, all these little border towns are going to be wide open with Konoha and Suna licking their wounds," the laughing bandit noted. "This town is ours for the taking."

A third bandit snickered in agreement and looked about.

"So where are we going to..." he stopped in mid sentence.

"Eh? Danno, what were you saying?" another bandit asked.

At which point, "Danno" smiled broadly and lashed out with a haymaker style punch, shuddering just at the end of the attack and flinching out of balance as the punch landed squarely in the face of one of his comrades.

"What the hell?" Danno asked, looking frightened. "Did someone just..."

"What the hell did you hit me for," another bandit asked before he lashed out with both hands in an attempt to choke the attacking pirate.

Further down the road, Ino picked herself up from the dust and the dirt and dusted herself off as she watched the result of her momentary possession of one of the bandits.

"That was too easy," she said, shaking her head.

"Stop it, both of you!" one of the bandits shouted, stepping in between them and glaring down the street toward the blonde girl standing in it. "It's her doing."

"Oh, look at that, one of you has a brain cell," Ino returned bitterly.

Ino winced and thought better of antagonizing the bandits as a salvo of five throwing axes ripped her way. Grimacing she reached up with a kunai to block two of the projectiles as she dodged aside of the other three, almost.

Ino was a highly skilled ninja, even at age twelve, but her taijutsu was only a little better than normal and she hadn't really had time to improve it to match what she wanted to do.

One axe was only deflected so that it slashed into her leg and sent her into a tumble as yet another pair of axes came streaking across toward her. She watched them coming and tried to stand out of the way, only to find that her now injured leg refused to support her.

Ino should have performed a substitution or something else, she'd done such before, and the action left her little time for much else beside lashing out with her own kunai.

Her kunai lashed out across the street to slam into the shoulder of one of the bandits, knocking him to the ground. Meanwhile the last pair of axes were zipping along to cut deep into her...

..until they stopped dead into a wall of sand.

"Damn bitch!" the bandit snarled, pulling her kunai out of her shoulder and then tossing the throwing spike away. "Damn it, that thing burned me."

Ino frowned and looked across the street to where Gaara was walking toward the scene.

"Look at that, another brat of a ninja," the bandit leader said as he noticed the sand swirling around him and his small army of bandits. "What do you think you hope to accomplish with this sand trick, brat?"

"To contain the blast," Gaara explained simply as the sand finished the last gap.

"Contain the wha...?" the bandit leader asked as he strangely let himself be closed in the large half sphere of sand.

A moment later, the sand buckled slightly outward with a muffled "whump". At which point the twisted and torn shreds of the bandits were uncovered, drawing a few eyes toward their barely alive remains and the two ninja that had stopped their rampage before it could really begin.

Gaara walked silently over toward where Ino was still sitting on the ground.

"You're better than that," he said.

"You didn't have to contain that," Ino noted. "It wasn't strong enough to damage any of the buildings near them."

"I could tell that from the fact that the bandits are merely crippled and not dead," Gaara responded coolly.

He bent down toward her and offered a hand. Ino stared at it a moment before knocking the offer aside.

"I'm fine," she said sharply.

"You're leg is injured," Gaara noted. "It is a small injury, but it is probably best you do not aggravate it."

He offered his hand again, this time, though still with caution, Ino accepted the offer his hand up.

* * *

Ino cautiously watched the sand swirling nearby. It had been Gaara's gourd and the sand it contained, but he'd dissolved it in order to make room for her. Of course, that left the presence of creepy swirling sand that she knew could be rather lethal.

In any case, Ino was currently being carried down the street by someone that had seriously tried to kill several times.

"Are you following me around?" she asked.

"Yes," Gaara said simply.

"Do you know how creepy that is?" Ino asked.

"I am aware it makes people uncomfortable," Gaara said. "I was trying to be unnoticed this time."

Usually he didn't mind being discovered as a way to intimidate his prey, but since he wasn't planning on killing anyone, he'd been trying not to make people, or Ino specifically, uncomfortable. So he'd put a bit more effort than normal into not being seen.

He started to turn toward the inn where the Konoha ninja were staying and Ino thumped him on the shoulder.

"No, no, don't want to be seen carried around like a baby," Ino snapped in a hushed undertone. "Just take me to a restaurant or something where I can sit down for a few minutes."

"Your injury needs to be treated," Gaara noted.

"I told you, I'll be fine," Ino said. "What do you care anyway?"

Gaara didn't answer but continued walking until he found a food stand and mechanically let Ino off his back so that she could sit on one of the stools. She immediately checked the bandage that they'd wrapped around her thigh and then looked up to order some food from the operator.

"Why are you following me?" Ino asked.

Gaara frowned and then nodded.

"I am curious," he said.

"Curious, what does tha..." Ino stopped and her eyes widened. "Are you trying to peep at me?"

"No," Gaara said irritably, narrowing his eyes. "I want to understand..."

"Understand what?" Ino asked.

"You do not give up," Gaara said. "He does not give up. It seems all of Konoha does not give up. But especially you and Him."

"'Him'," Ino repeated. "You mean Sasuke or Naruto?"

"Naruto," Gaara answered. "I thought you were both fools, but I was wrong."

"No, Naruto's pretty foolish," Ino said. "But you were certainly wrong about me."

Gaara turned to face her emotionlessly and glance down toward her injured leg.

"I was a bit upset," she protested.

Gaara raised an eyebrow.

"You weren't defending anyone," he noted. "And you did not take them seriously. If you had fought as you did in the preliminaries, they would not have touched you."

Her food was brought over and she poked at it idly before taking a bite.

"Yeah, I fouled up," she said. "I'm not a bad-ass yet. Which is why I have a healthy supply of explosive tags for now."

Gaara nodded.

"Why are you so determined," he asked. "You've said your friend was hurt, but why do you care?"

"Because she's my friend," Ino said. "I was in her mind and she was in so much pain and she only half knew it."

Ino took a bite and stayed quiet for a moment.

"And then I remembered I always protected her and we always had fun together," Ino said. "Then came Sasuke-kun and we kept competing over him. And I didn't realize she'd cared so much about it. I thought she just wanted Sasuke like all those other girls did, not serious like me. I didn't think she'd do something so stupid...and then get hurt doing that."

"You feel guilty then?" Gaara asked. "That is all?"

"No," Ino snapped. "I mean, yes...but no. Look, it's complicated. I don't get it all myself. I just...it hurts to see...friends, anybody really, hurt because you messed up. I mean, before, if I ran away or I messed up I thought it was just me that got hurt. But, I mean, if I'd run away and hid instead of following Naruto and bringing Choji with me, then you, Hinata, Sasuke and Naruto would have been..."

She shivered visibly.

"If I fail," the blonde said. "It isn't just me getting hurt. I don't suppose you've ever had something like that."

Gaara frowned slightly and looked forward and thought of his Uncle and the fact that he had been forced to kill him. Maybe, if he'd had better control of himself then, he could have incapacitated the man rather than killed him.

Perhaps, if he'd had better control, people wouldn't have feared him so.

And that loss was when everything had changed for him. He'd lost the only person that had made life bearable, in more ways than one.

"I have," Gaara said simply.

Ino looked over at him, eyes narrowed doubtfully for a moment before eating her food a little more.

"So you're reason to exist isn't to kill anymore?" Ino asked sarcastically. "Just like that?"

Gaara frowned now.

"The satisfaction of killing someone who wants to kill me does not last," Gaara said. "I think about helping my sister and I have a direction and it remains while my sister remains."

He slowly turned to look at her.

"You too," he said. "If you died, I'd have one less reason to exist that does not involve killing enemies."

Ino choked on her food dramatically enough that it attracted eyes that had, until then been ignoring the two teenagers talking idly. Even though they were obvious ninjas.

"What was that?" she demanded. "I'm a reason for existing? _Me_? Look as flatteringly creepy as that is, I'm going to be with Sasuke Uchiha, definitely, so sorry but..."

"I was not speaking of that," Gaara said with his normal, mildly creepy tone. "I was speaking of a desire to understand why you make the choices you do."

"Oh...uh, I see," Ino said, embarrassed.

"But Sasuke Uchiha does not give you the respect you deserve," he said. "He is like I was, or very close to it. He has much the same eyes. His life is defined by his enemy. His enemy is merely stronger than mine were and out of reach. When his enemy falls, he will have to find a new enemy to keep living his life."

"No way," Ino said. "Sasuke is way too sensitive and cool to be like that. I know, I understand him."

Gaara listened to the note of desperation in her voice and nodded reluctantly.

"If you say so," he said. "But I will be upset if he hurts you."

"Because you want to understand me," Ino asked for clarification.

"Yes," the sand-bending shinobi said.

"I have a creepy, stalker protector with vast power?" she asked.

"If you want to put it that way," Gaara responded.

* * *

Two cloaked men looked down over the village and considered the activities going on below.

"Orochimaru botched his move," the taller said. "Think we're too late?"

"If the jinchuriki is dead," the shorter said. "Then the Kyuubi will eventually reappear, it just might not be for a century or more. In any case, let's move in catch what word we can first."

"Yeah, yeah," the first cloaked man said. "Let's get this little errand over with."

They started quietly walking down from the hills toward the gates of the village and past without drawing any real attention from the guards.

* * *

Okay, this week's preview was on Kittens and Babylon, no new Chi and Chakra yet save the total chapter posted here


	41. Possibility

Sakura tried to ignore the nervous shakes of the man taking her blood and the swift way that he left the room. Or the way that his eyes kept flicking to her even when he was on the other side of the glass window from the observation room.

Kodachi of the Musk was leaving that morning, and had thus stopped to give her a refresher of the chi curse that was apparently keeping her body stable.

And that made her uncomfortable as well.

It was the first time someone had bothered to tell her that the only reason she was still mostly human was because someone had tailored an attack against her that curtailed the mutation. It was supposed to last months or something, but it still left her worried about what would happen if Kodachi didn't come back.

Anko came into the room while she was waiting, the older ninja's absence probably part of the reason that the doctors had been nervous.

"Got you some dumplings," Anko said, reluctantly handing over a pair of sticks to Sakura.

"Thanks, I love these things!" Sakura responded with a brief hint of her old personality.

"Really?" Anko asked with a wry smirk.

"Yes, these are like my favorite food," Sakura said.

"You know we've been around each other a little more than a month now and you never made mention of this," Anko brought up. "Though this explains why I have to restock more often than I used to."

"Oh...umm, sorry, should I be asking?" Sakura asked quietly.

"I said to help yourself to the food," Anko said. "I just didn't expect you to have the same excellent taste that I do. They're my favorite food too."

She said the last in a sing-song flirting tone of voice that she often used when toying with someone's mind.

"That's so cool, Anko-sempai!" Sakura said.

"Sempai?" Anko returned curiously.

"Oh, umm, is that okay?" the pink-haired girl asked.

"That's just fine, Sakura-chan," the special-jonin responded playfully.

The girl's good cheer lasted about as long as it took her to finish the anko dumplings that Anko had brought. And as the last one was finished she held the stick in hand shakily for a moment and Anko's demeanor changed slightly as she looked for signs of whether it was aggression or despair.

Neither was good, but one was likely to result in less property damage at the moment.

"Ino had to leave," she said quietly.

"I'm fairly certain she'll be writing," Anko said. "But that's not as good as her being here, is it?"

"Sasuke went with that Kodachi woman," Sakura continued. "Even Naruto is gone on some mission. How pathetic am I to start wishing for _Naruto_ to be around?"

That last was definitely the aggressive Sakura.

The sound of nervous medical-ninja entering the room prevented Anko from saying something in response. She raised her arm quickly cutting the man off in mid speech and indicating for him to be a bit more cautious. It wasn't that she wanted to worsen Sakura's reputation at all, but implying caution was necessary would be better than provoking an outburst from the version of her that was standing forward right now.

"Well..." the medical ninja said calmly. "There is some good news. Kodachi's treatment is working on limiting the pace of the mutation."

"Limiting the pace?" Sakura said with something of snarl. "What do you mean 'limiting' shouldn't it be stopping it completely?"

"Sakura, right part forward," Anko said quickly, drawing a disgruntled expression from the girl before she abruptly slumped forward. "Do you think you can give anymore details than that? I'd like to know what's up with my student here."

"At it's current rate," the doctor said. "You won't start noticing significant issues for years, unless you start pushing the issue."

"Pushing the issue?" Anko asked.

"Trying to draw out useful mutations will speed things up," the medical ninja said. "Right now, you have enough of a deviation to start producing jutsu like those O...those of the Inuzuka. But with your DNA currently unstable."

"I might not be able to undo it?" Sakura said, feeling a chill down her spine. "I'd become more of a monster."

"A tumor is more likely," the medical ninja warned her. "But yes. We've started work on a stabilizing agent, and now we hope to have the time to work one out."

Anko's frown and Sakura's open-mouthed shaking look of shock informed the man that his bedside manner of informing the patient of the good news hadn't exactly been appreciated.

"Y...you think it will take years?" Sakura said, sounding on the verge of tears before her face took on a harder cast. "Years?"

"A mission has been set to seek a medical expert," the man said. "Who is a recognized genius, that should help greatly. I thought the scale should have been obvious, given her apprenticeship..."

Anko moved into Sakura's fixated line of sight and caught her eye before turning back toward the medic with a glowering, though easy going manner. Really, even intelligent teenagers weren't usually thinking on that scale more than just a dry intellectual level. This peon should have known that.

"Tsh," she said. "All of you have gone down hill without Tsunade-sama around to kick your asses into gear. Sakura, let's get back home."

"Hai, Anko-Sempai," Sakura said, slipping off the examination table forcefully and feeling the metal edges warp in her grip.

* * *

"So we're going to need a training ground," Kurumi said, conferring with Kakashi and some of the other jonin remaining in the Village.

"I personally enjoy using training ground ten," Gai said.

"Oh, ," Ryoko said enthusiastically. "Th...there's...There is. There is...a good v..variety of terrain pr...present there. How..however...there is a quirk..."

Kakashi and Asuma traded looks as Ryoko spoke.

"Hmm, yes, you speak of the mystery trainer," Gai said firmly.

"Mystery trainer?" Kurumi asked, a bit confused.

"H...hai," Ryoko said. "Quite often, I shall ar...arrive and either find my preparations...eliminated. Or...I shall find some there be...before I have set any."

"Indeed," Gai agreed with a firm nod. "Whoever this individual is he is a very devious individual capable of crafting the most devious training grounds imaginable."

"Hai," the young Saotome said. "There wa..was once that Imouto-chan and I arrived early in the morning and th...the whole thing was rigged with trip wires and deadfalls an..and...giant branches."

"Hmm, that does sound familiar," Gai noted. "Though the instance where the entire field was rigged with mouse-traps on timed triggers set off by walking over a network of wires."

"Ano..." Ryoko said, frowning. "Were they designed to look like sn...snakes?"

"Actually, yes," Gai said casually. "Did you have a water hazard once?"

"H..hai!" Ryoko said.

Kurumi walked over toward the other two jonin and leaned over toward them slowly as Ryoko and Gai turned away from each other in thought.

"So, how long has this been going on?" she asked.

Ryoko and Gai looked toward each other with puzzled expressions and then away again as they continued thinking through the situation.

"Since Gai took on his team," Kakashi said.

"It's you!" "You are the one!"

* * *

"The woman we're looking for is a great medical ninja," Jiraiya explained to the kids walking along beside him.

"So she'll be able to help the old man then?" Naruto asked. "And Lee."

"And also the girl that Orochimaru had infected with that snake and the Kishu," Jiraiya thought before speaking aloud. "That's the general plan."

"Jiraiya-sama," Hinata said quietly. "Who is this person we're looking for?"

"She's a fifty year old woman," he said. "Who was born in Konoha village."

"Oh, so we're looking for some old woman then?" Naruto asked.

"Well, she's likely disguised herself," the sage noted. "She's always been a bit vain about her appearance, so she'll probably look a lot younger. Perhaps being something like in her twenties or thirties."

Hinata frowned a moment in thought as she considered the combination of "great medical ninja", "fifty year old woman" and "from Konoha."

"Ah!" she gasped. "Is it..."

"Hmm?" Jiraiya asked with a smile. "Is it?"

"Tsunade?" Hinata asked.

"How about that, good guess," the sage said.

"Who's Tsunade?" Naruto wondered.

"The other of the three Sannin," Hinata explained. "The other legendary ninja of the leaf who is as strong as either Jiraiya-sama or Orochimaru."

Naruto hummed in thought as he looked over toward Jiraiya and tried to imagine a woman like him and Orochimaru. The resultant image seared deep into his mind where it would not go away.

"Ahhh! We're looking for that?" Naruto shrieked.

"Looking for what?" Jiraiya asked, "You're pointing at me."

"Tsunade-sama is supposed to be one of the strongest and most beautiful women in the world," Hinata said quietly.

"Ehh, so we should look for all the guys flocking around her or something, like with Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya smirked as he considered the moderate truth of that, though the people flocking around Tsunade had more to do with money than her beauty.

They came up to the top of a hill and looked down toward a thriving town. Hinata could already see the rows of inns and shops of a particular nature, those aimed at travelers and passersby, from where she stood, though without activating her byakugan, she could only make out sparse details.

"So you're going to train Hinata-chan and I right?" Naruto asked, not looking down into the town ahead just at the moment.

"Yeah, I suppose I'll have to," Jiraiya said. "We can't have you just sitting around doing nothing all the time it will take us to track her down."

"So what are you going to teach us then?" Naruto asked.

"Well, we'll see," Jiraiya said with a smile. "I'd like to get to know the two of you a little better first. Haven't met your girlfriend much yet."

"Uhh," Naruto said with a flinch as Jiraiya smirked at the two.

Hinata for her part blushed fairly brightly.

"Hard to deny it after what I heard about the chunin exam," he said. "Apparently, Hinata-chan was so excited after her match that she threw herself out you."

"It wasn't quite like that," Hinata said. "I was...tired and..."

Jiraiya snickered at the adolescent attempts to deny exactly what they both wanted but were afraid to comment on. He let them both continue to fumble through their excuses as they approached the town.

They'd likely be publicly accepting and stating boyfriend/girlfriend before too much longer. Especially in this life.

Now as to the training, he'd been planning on giving Naruto a start on the Rasengan, and he thought it was fairly likely that Hinata would grasp at least the theory and mechanics fairly easily. After all, she'd be able to see the chakra flowing around.

Still, it was a difficult jutsu. Naruto had the power, but control was an issue. Hinata might have the control, but did she have the power? Chakra control could be coached, but power would take longer to develop.

Maybe he should find something else for Hinata to do in case she couldn't put the power together.

* * *

"The attack on Konoha did not go nearly as well as planned," Orochimaru noted. "It was useless to go without Kimmimaru after all."

"Apparently so," Kabuto said. "But one could hardly predict the variety of developments that occurred. What do you think regarding Sasuke Uchiha?"

"His curse mark will bring him in this direction," Orochimaru said. "He wants too much power to go as carefully as Anko has. But he has been experimenting in other directions."

"Chi," Kabuto agreed. "Is that a problem?"

"It could be," Orochimaru noted. "I think we might need to find help for Kimmimaru after all."

"Help for Kimmimaru?" the traitorous medical ninja noted. "His condition is incurable. There's nobody who could fix that."

"No, there is possibly one person," Orochimaru said with a smile.

* * *

Itachi did not particularly expect Konoha to be particularly vulnerable immediately after an attack like what he'd heard had been perpetrated by Orochimaru's manipulation of Sound. However, there was a chance that it was so and it would give him a chance to analyze the nature of things in Konoha.

And also to remind Danzo that he was still out there.

Getting in was rather easy.

"Do you know what this kid is supposed to look like?" Kisame had asked a while back.

"We have some basic description," Itachi had answered.

"I thought you still lived in Konoha about the time he had gotten a couple of years," Kisame noted.

To that he hadn't really answered. The Uzumaki boy was not exactly something he had been focused on at the time. He'd been a little bit busy with the whole problem of the politics between his clan and Root and their respective plans for Konoha.

And now, they were minimalizing their chakra and walking through the town as quietly as possible.

Construction everywhere and repairs being done and neither had to put much effort into seeing that the Anbu were out in force and even the basic genin were on the alert as they moved about on various tracks.

What did surprise him was the handful of Suna ninja that he saw walking about with something close to freedom, accounting for the Anbu watch around them. It had been easy to learn from rumors that a lot of the year's rookies were out of the village on one mission or another.

That apparently included their target.

"Hey, Kakashi," a voice said behind them. "What are you doing here this time of day?"

"Ahh, well, I was on my way to the training fields and just sort of got lost on the way," Kakashi said.

Itachi grimaced and shared a look with Kisame, he'd not even felt Kakashi in the area.

"How about you?" Kakashi said, not using a name Itachi noticed.

"Team 10 is looking for Tora," the other voice noted and Itachi placed him as Asuma Sarutobi then.

Another jonin.

"Ahh, well, with Sasuke out on mission, I've got at least one less student to train," Kakashi said. "And I'm finding the most interesting things."

Itachi frowned as Kakashi clearly picked up on the spike of chakra that formed when Sasuke had been named. He nodded to Kisame as it became clear that Asuma was picking up on what Kakashi was saying.

In the next moment they were gone from where they stood over-hearing the conversation, leaving with much more speed than had entered.

As they passed like a wind, a figure on a roof caught Itachi's eye and for just a moment he matched gazes with the old man, Asuma's father: the Third Hokage.

* * *

"The Uchiha are a part of this village, as much as any other family," Hiruzen had insisted firmly all those years ago. "We do not slaughter our own."

"They are planning an uprising," Danzo noted. "As Itachi has informed us directly. They desire to take the position they believe the Senju denied them long ago."

"The knowledge that we know what they intend should be enough to open a dialogue," the Hokage insisted. "We cannot simply take the easy way."

The argument continued for sometime before the elders and the Hokage separated, leaving Itachi alone with Danzo.

"When the Hokage makes this attempt, they'll accelerate their plans," Danzo said. "This must never threaten Konoha again."

* * *

He'd never proven that Danzo had sabotaged the Hokage's efforts, at least not to his own satisfaction but that hardly mattered.

The Hokage shook his head and looked down in something like grief.

And Itachi looked away as they left the village.

* * *

Kakashi grimaced as they proved too slow to report Itachi's appearance and get ahead to delay him long enough for capture.

If there'd been a third jonin, two could have gone ahead to contain Itachi and his unknown comrade while the third reported and arranged support.

But one was not enough to even contain Itachi, much less capture.

"Oh well," he said to Asuma. "It could have gone worse."

"You probably shouldn't say things like that," Asuma noted.

At that moment a little blonde haired girl careening around a corner and stop as she sniffed at the air, looking around.

"I know he's around here somewhere," the girl said, looking in the wrong direction.

"Joseibi-chan," Kakashi called out in a friendly tone. "You need to work more on your scent."

The girl turned about quickly and darted forward.

"You have to stop her!"

"Huh?" Kakashi asked.

* * *

Ryoko clapped proudly as she got a close look at Joseibi changing from girl to fox and back yet again and laughed as she did so.

"All right, Kit," Tsume said. "Looks like you've mastered your change."

"B..but how is that possible?" Ryoko asked quietly.

Before Tsume could turn around and explain things to Ryoko a figure came running into the area.

"Tsume-sama!" he called out. "We need a tracker. Itachi Uchiha was seen in the village and he's supposedly after Naruto."

"The U...Uchiha M...massacre Itachi?" Ryoko asked in a whisper.

"What?" Tsume snapped. "I'll be right there! You girls head on home!"

Ryoko nodded and snatched up Joseibi before the girl could say anything and do more than notice that her sister's eyes were flickering orange again.

"Onechan," Joseibi said. "Are you okay?"

"I..I have to g..get you home an..and...safe," Ryoko said quickly as she moved with little regard for normal decorum to arrive at their apartment.

And then she was being escorted to her room and put inside, her sister taking deep breaths on the other side of a quickly closed door for a moment before a clicking sound heard and she was running out.

"Ryoko!" she called out. "Where are you..."

By the time she got out the door there was no sign of her sister, but she was fairly certain she knew where Ryoko would be going. Where-ever it was Naruto had gone off to.

"Where was that Kurumi woman staying again?" she asked herself as she rushed out the door and headed out towards the inn that she thought she remembered Kurumi was staying at. "I think it was that Kodachi lady's rooms..."

It wasn't more than half-way there before she stopped in her tracks upon seeing the object of her search eating what had to be her tenth meal in one sitting judging by the number of bowls Joseibi saw.

"Hey! Tendo!" Joseibi shouted, grabbing the woman's attention.

* * *

"And she told me to find you and tell you what happened," Joseibi said.

"Her eyes were orange, you said," Kakashi said.

"Yes, but that doesn't matter," Joseibi insisted. "Onechan went off to go save Naruto or something but she's still not better from saving me."

"Right," Kakashi said before giving her an encouraging look. "Don't worry, Joseibi-chan, everything will be fine."

* * *

"Okay," Jiraiya said as they checked into the inn for the night. "Hinata, Naruto, tonight for the start of your training."

"Yes?" Naruto asked eagerly.

Hinata nodded leaning forward slightly to listen.

"We're going to start..." Jiraiya paused as he looked behind the two kids and a delighted expression entered his eyes.

Confused, the two kids turned around to see a lovely, scantily clad woman smiling and making eyes over toward their general direction such that Hinata noticed even Naruto blushing heavily to her discomfort.

"Meditation!" Jiraiya said quickly thrusting the key into Hinata's hands and then dancing out to the woman that had gestured for him to come.

"What?" Naruto shouted.

"I wonder if this is why Father asked me to pack the mace," Hinata said quietly.

* * *

"Damn that girl," Kurumi said as she ran on the path that she thought Jiraiya was most likely to take given which gate he'd left the village by. "She is not in condition for another fight. Certainly not against someone as powerful as Itachi Uchiha is rumored to be. Saotome idiocy."

But what worried her the most was the description that the girl's technique, this Kishu Osore, had started in its first stages apparently.

That technique was the main injury she was still recovering from.

* * *

In the inn-room, Hinata and Naruto were sitting back to back and trying to concentrate on meditating and not focus at all on the blush that was developing over their faces from being alone in the room together.

Hinata paused in her meditation to trigger the byakugan briefly and immediately gasped at what she saw.

"What is it, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked.

"There's someone coming," she whispered. "With terrible chakra."

She gasped again.

"Itachi Uchiha," she said. "Father's shown me pictures."

"Huh?" Naruto said. "Uchiha..." his eyes widened. "You mean Sasuke's brother?"

"They're downstairs," Hinata whispered before glancing toward the window.

"Hmmm?" Naruto asked.

* * *

The door was splintered open by Kisame's sword when nobody answered and they found the room emptied with only minimal signs that anybody had been inside.

"Ohhh, these are skilled genin," Kisame said as he moved toward the window and looked around. "But Samehada can still smell them."

Itachi stopped and bent down to pick up a dropped comb and noted the crest on it.

"He's with a Hyuga," he said.

* * *

"I don't like running away," Naruto said tightly. "Are they still coming?"

"They're following us," Hinata said, trying to think of a way to get Naruto to split off and not be endangered by someone obviously seeking her.

"Tsh, where's the Ero-sennin?" Naruto snapped. "We should find him."

"Perhaps, we should..." Hinata stopped. "Kage bunshin! Where are the real..."

Hinata stopped as a large figure stepped out onto the road in front of them. And another came out behind the two.

Instantly, she stepped into a jyuken stance and was comforted as Naruto took a position behind her.

All around them people called out and started gathering around to watch the fight, thinking it something small and typical between lower ranked ninja.

"Well, well," the tall blue-skinned one said. "I guess you're still not practiced enough to avoid tunnel vision, eh."

"Who the hell are you guys?" Naruto demanded. "And what do you want with us?"

"Me," Hinata said quietly.

"Huh?" Naruto said.

"If...if you let Naruto go unharmed..." Hinata started to say.

"What the hell are you saying, Hinata-chan!" Naruto shouted. "There's no way I'd let anybody take you. Over my dead body."

The little scene provoked a loud laugh from the tall blue skinned one.

"You don't have to worry, Naruto Uzumaki," Itachi said.

Hinata's eyes widened as they used Naruto's name. They were here for him, not her? No, she couldn't protect him if she had neither the level of power necessary to fight people with this much chakra nor anything to bargain with.

"We're looking for your boyfriend there, princess," Kisame said. "Not that you wouldn't..."

Screams and cries of alarm called Itachi's attention down the road and his eyes widened as a form outlined in flickering orange flames was rushing its way towards the scene.

"Hmm, what is that?" Kisame asked in a bored tone as Ryoko leaped up into the air.

"You will not hurt Uzumaki-san or Hyuga-san!" Ryoko shouted as her flames flared higher with her descent, an inner flicker of purple touching within.

Kisame snickered as he reached out to slash her with his sword casually. He was moderately impressed when she managed to avoid the sword, flipping over and landing on her feet with a crackling sound as orange flame seared the ground under her and twisting black veins of visibly twisting worked out from her.

"Ryoko-chan!" Naruto said triumphantly. "All right!"

With her byakugan active, Hinata was a bit less cheerful to see Ryoko's appearance as she saw the chakra in her body was flooding violently, too high too fast. More was being made than she could use and it was burning through her body.

And that distortion that was how Hinata recognized Ryoko's fluctuating chi was...almost broiling in a venomous manner.

Still, as Naruto dived in towards the man with the sword, intent on helping Ryoko, she only hesitated a moment or two to consider what was happening to her friend, and also to spare some attention on the man behind them.

Kisame chuckled as blocked Ryoko's attack with his sword, up until it shivered in displeasure upon swallowing a fraction of her chakra and the poisonous chi it was carrying. Shoving the sword aside, he sent the girl flying back and saw her slam back into a wall just as several Narutos swarmed over him supported by the little Hyuga girl trying to step in and Jyuken him.

Still frowning at Samehada's violent thrashings upon having touched the little black haired girl, he swept it aside, carrying several of the attacking clones with it and forcing the Hyuga to dodge aside.

Itachi meanwhile turned to look at Ryoko and recognized a Kishu.

"That woman," he thought grimmly. "Too how many fools does she spread her poisonous books?"

The girl wasn't strong enough to seriously threaten them, but if she was in such a state, then it would bring Jiraiya that much sooner than they wanted.

Slowly, making sure he was in her peripheral vision, he raised a kunai towards her and blinked when she ignored him preparing to launch back into the fight. His thoughts carried back toward what she said on coming in and he turned to point the kunai toward Hinata and Naruto.

Instantly it produced a reaction from the girl as she whirled to focus on him and meet his eyes.

Hinata pulled Naruto, or at least a Naruto, out of the way of another half-hearted swipe of the blade by Kisame, but she noticed the sudden shiver down through Ryoko's body as she stopped firmly.

* * *

Ryoko blinked as she stood in the center of an intersection of streets lined by simple buildings extending far past where she reasonably expected her vision to extend. The raging fear for her friends that had been driving her seemed ever so distant.

Everything was in negative colors and space was stretched strangely with a grimly red sky.

"Ano," she said experimentally.

"That power of yours needs to be slowed down," a voice said that came from everywhere.

"W..'s Uz..z..zumaki-san and Hyug..g..-san?" she asked, though even past the terrified stuttering it seemed a demand.

And that fear was coming rushing back, with it the fires.

"Wh...where are they?" Ryoko demanded, flinching as the fire rushed out from her.

She'd never seen it do that before, and, as it lashed out almost intelligently and with a will separate from her own, the endless town about her erupted in a rush of purple flames that burnt away the walls and pavement to reveal burnt flesh and charred bones.

"This is what your future work is," a voice whispered right into her ear as she started to distinguish faces out of the piles of scattered body parts.

* * *

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto shouted as the young Hyuga's slashing chakra archs were swallowed eagerly up by the blue-man's sword and she herself was thrust easily face down in the dirt just as Naruto, himself, was scooped up by the throat.

Further away, Ryoko took another step as her flames flickered out and she collapsed down to the ground, unconscious with her eyes open in shock.

"Ryoko-chan!" Naruto gasped, desperation entering his voice.

"Stop playing around," Itachi said. "Let's just take him now."

He started to turn around when both Naruto and Hinata vanished into smoke. Glancing over toward Ryoko's form, Itachi frowned as he saw Jiraiya's form there, holding both Hinata and Naruto and setting them down.

"Ero-sennin!" Naruto gasped.

"Jiraiya-sama," Hinata added.

"Well, Itachi," Jiraiya said loudly. "Graduating from mass murder to schoolyard bully. Moving up in the world. Now, let's see you try the same on the Toad Sage, Jiraiya!"

"I think I'll want a piece of that as well," another voice said as a woman landed in the midst of them. "They've hurt someone I've accepted as student. Kurumi Tendo, the Wandering Master, Master of the Chikara virtue of the Redeemed School of Martial Arts."

"Well," Kisame said nervously, more due to the sannin than the woman whose chakra he couldn't even feel. "This is becoming a little bit troublesome."

"Kisame," Itachi said. "Let's go."

Both black-cloaked ninja leaped away as they started to run away from the fight. In a flash Kurumi was leaping after them, blurring out of sight as she did so.

"You think I'm just going to let you get away!" Jiraiya asked, planting his hands down into the ground and calling forth a wave of pinkish flesh moving outward in a rolling mass.

Kisame glanced back briefly smirking as he saw the mass approaching behind them and was glad they hadn''t had this fight indoors. He half expected that it would have caught them then. Then turn back he blinked as he saw the face of the woman he had dismissed before.

"Joukai Seirei Kata! Sanka!" she shouted, slamming down into Kisame's shoulder like a parent thumping a praiseworthy child on the shoulder.

The toad flesh whirled past her as she turned around about to look toward the fleeing Itachi while Kisame was swallowed up by whatever the old ninja was doing.

"Makai Seirei Kata! Shimei!" she called out taking a full breath before releasing it with another shout. "Itachi! Uchiha!"

The chi flowed in through her mouth, swirled about and spiraled tightly within her before being released again with Itachi's name and sent into the air into a tight, twisting needle that carried with it a thirst to unite with the resonance of a person recognizing their own name being called out with authority.

It struck and Itachi felt his body seize up in a momentary paralysis that lasted more than long enough for Jiraiya's told prison to complete.

And then both Kisame and Itachi vanished in a puff of smoke to reveal pieces of furniture.

"Substitution," Jiraiya grimaced.

"Gah! Damn chakra!" Kurumi shouted angrily as she took in a deep breath. "That's not supposed to be fooled by phantoms!"

It was also a lot of effort and tight control in a very small pace of time.

"Ryoko-chan!" Hinata said, at the Saotome girl's side looking her over as Naruto tried to shake her awake.

"What's wrong with her?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya let the toad flesh fade away around them as he moved to check over the girl and frowned at what he saw.

"The flesh is burned," he noted.

"That's her own technique," Kurumi said moving back.

"The Kishu Osore?" Jiraiya asked. "Has she collapsed like this from that before?"

"Something like it I heard," the martial artist said bitterly. "Her sister hit her with an illusion to make her happy and it cut the technique short. As soon as that happened she didn't have the energy to continue."

"This isn't exhaustion," Hinata said. "I don't think it looks the same."

"That guy did something to her," Naruto said angrily.

* * *

"You used the Tsukiyomi on that girl?" Kisame said. "Why would you waste that much?"

"What she is could be...problematic, I was hoping to avoid something attention getting," Itachi said. "Had I known Jiraiya was already alerted to us, I would have simply killed her."

"So now she'll be problematic in the future," the shark man noted.

"This may have slowed her development in that regard down some," the Uchiha noted.

* * *

"Looks like I'm here late," Kakashi said quietly as he appeared on sight to see Ryoko unconscious though carefully pulled off the road.

"I've tried to help," Kurumi said from where she was knelt beside Ryoko. "But healing isn't my specialty. That was Kasumi and Tofu, and unfortunately, they're dead. All I can tell is that she's not waking up any time soon with her chi in turmoil like this."

"How about Tsunade-sama?" Hinata asked quickly, not mentioning that she also thought Ryoko's chakra was all messed up.

"That's right, she's supposed to be some sort of healing genius right?" Naruto asked.

"She should be able to help," Kakashi confirmed, looking toward Jiraiya with a nod.

* * *

"You're one of my sister's teammates, aren't you?" Ranma said coming up beside Sasuke so quietly that his eyes widened in surprise.

"Ryoko," Sasuke said. "Hn."

"You fought a match against her recently, right?" Ranma said. "Did pretty good I hear."

"I lost," Sasuke said.

"That's good," Ranma said with a smirk.

Sasuke frowned deeply and looked to the man with a narrowed look. Of course he would favor his own family, but he didn't have to be so blunt about it.

"It would have been better if you'd won," Ranma added. "I learned my best stuff after I'd been beaten or when I was about to be beaten. Losing and surviving it is the best way to get stronger."

Sasuke thought back to his own thoughts about having an ever moving target to keep up with, always passing and being passed.

"When I was your age," Ranma said. "The only thing I cared about was being the strongest. But as soon as I got there, I stopped."

He paused and thought about it.

"Ryoko seems to be the same," he said. "But I always got pissed if someone ended up better than me. She seems to get deliriously happy if she finds someone she can't beat."

He pointed surreptitiously toward Kiba walking beside Kurenai ahead of them.

"Dumb luck," Sasuke noted with narrowed eyes.

"Maybe," Ranma said shrugging. "Some people just are very good at fighting specific people."

"Hn."

"Since you've been picking up our school's style," Ranma said. "Has someone explained the virtues to you yet?"

"The virtues?" Sasuke said.

"Five of them," Ranma noted. "The guidelines on how we behave and what our strength is for."

"I know the reason for my strength," Sasuke said.

"Ha!" Ranma shouted loudly with amusement.

"Dear, don't harass the ninja," the other chi master said.

"Who are you to laugh at what I say?" Sasuke asked coldly.

"Kid," Ranma said. "The reason for strength changes with each breath you take. You have to figure out all the time."

"So what are the use of these virtues you're talking about then?" he asked.

"Guidelines," Ranma said. "First is Airen..."

Akane snickered while Kodachi gave a cough that may have been a laugh. Ranma grimaced to look at both of them.

"Ignore them, they're easily amused. Anyway, first is Airen," he repeated. "Compassion. Because ain't nothing you do going to be worth anything if you only do it for yourself."

Kurenai cocked her head aside to listen to the continuing lecture and looked toward Akane and Kodachi.

"He's giving a different order than you did Kodachi," Kurenai noted.

The black haired woman nodded and Akane turned to look at Kurenai.

"If you talk to Kurumi, she would list Chikara first," Akane said. "And say that if don't have the agency to enforce your will, then nothing else matters. Kodachi is my student and we are Iyoku, for us the decision to act is the most important. Ryuu Kumon would claim Gumi and that it is most important to take responsibility for your actions, and his wife, my adoptive sister would say it is most important that all your decisions are not influenced externally or internally. For Ranma it is most important that you in same way make the world better."

"Strength, Will, Duty, Freedom and Compassion," Kurenai nodded.

"It's not as elegant yet as the Will of Fire," Akane admitted. "But we are just the first generation of the school."

"So, Ryoko is Iyoku then?" Kiba asked coming up to the conversation. "I mean if she was taught by Kodachi."

"Gumi and Chikara are more fitting her personality," Akane said, thinking about it. "We'll see. If Kurumi gets her hooks into her, she'll be challenging everything in sight by the time we get back."

"She is already like that," Kiba noted.

"Are there any significant differences in ability?" Shino asked.

"More tactics and behavior," Mokya noted.

* * *

"And you have to catch this little monster regularly?" Temari asked as she held out the cat by the scruff of the neck.

"We try to avoid that one as much as possible," Shikamaru said. "It's probably the most bothersome of the repeat missions."

"Team 7 doesn't have too much trouble," Choji said.

"Ryoko of team 7 has a little sister who can become a fox and track it down," Shikamaru noted.

"Are you allowed to use a little sister in a mission like that?" Temari asked.

"They say it's practice for dealing with a mission specialist," Shikamaru said.

"Let's just get this cat passed off and dealt with," Temari said irritably. "Where's that jonin anyway?"

"Asuma?" Chouji asked. "He said he'd be right back..."

"That was hours ago," Temari said.

"Meh, it'll be troublesome if he starts picking up Kakashi's habits," Shikamaru said.

"If who starts picking up Kakashi's habits?" Asuma's voice asked as he appeared behind Shikamaru.

"You, old man," the pineapple-haired boy said irritably.

"Where've you been?" Temari demanded. "We were just about to drop off this cat...where did..."

Temari, Chouji and Shikamaru looked to Temari's hands and the lack of present cat.

"Tsh," Shikamaru said. "Now we have to catch it again."

"Do it quickly," Asuma said. "We're going on patrol tomorrow."

"That's at least a week long mission," Shikamaru said, sitting up then.

"Correct," their leader said. "But we just had an infiltration with a casualty, so security is tightening."

"A casualty?" Chouji said. "Somebody was hurt? Was it serious?"

"Ryoko Saotome," Asuma said grimly. "In the hospital in a coma of some kind."

* * *

Joseibi watched from outside the hospital room as the medical ninja set up the area to manage Ryoko's care. This wasn't the first time she'd seen her sister in the hospital, but she'd been unconscious when they carried her back to the Village and she was still unconscious now.

"Itachi Uchiha used some sort of genjutsu on her," Kakashi said. "No...something more than just that, because a release hasn't woken he up."

"Will she be okay?" Joseibi said.

"Mmm," Kakashi said. "Naruto and Hinata are already on a mission to bring back a medical expert."

Joseibi took a deep breath and looked toward her sister with narrowed eyes.

"I'd almost think she planned it, Uennechan," the little girl said.

"Hmm?" Kakashi asked.

"Make me want to train harder," Joseibi said.

* * *

A small camp of Sound ninja sat beyond the walls of Konoha, watching the repair processes from the vantage point of the tall trees and recording the comings and goings of people to and from the Village.

They'd already recorded the Sand ninja leaving among other leave-takings. They were aware that they were deep, deep in hostile land and being very careful to stay hidden and out of the normal patrol paths.

It limited what they could see, but something was better than nothing.

"Lord Orochimaru will want all the information he can get when he returns to complete this task," one of them said quietly in answer to a muttered complaint.

"Leaf is busy and distracted," another said. "Too stretched for proper patrols even right now. These Konoha trash have no idea that we're even still..."

The man paused as a slender body and head stretched down from the branch above him and curled up to look him in the eyes. A large serpent, at least twelve feet, if not more and looking at him with an intelligence in its eyes.

A sudden feeling behind him of a presence had the man glancing back to see slitted green eyes lined by purple skin. Pink hair framed a pretty face that was distorted by a snarl.

"Who's trash?" the girl asked with a hiss before a kunai slashed through his throat.

The other two stood up, preparing to fight back but they were two slow even to form a hand sign for a substitution as one was wrapped up by the snake that had first made its presence known out of their attackers and the third found himself sprouting senbon from his throat.

"Next time, Sakura," Anko said. "Make sure one is captured before you do any killing."

"Hai, Anko-sempai," Sakura said as she set the body of her target down gingerly. Her angry expression giving way to one of disgust and slight guilt.

Slightly less guilt, and disconnected. She was remembering the kills she had made which weren't justified, not so much worrying about this one which was a true enemy.

"Let go of me!" the Sound ninja was saying. "Lord Orochimaru will...Gah!"

The long cobra holding him tight sank his fangs into the man's shoulder and quickly the poison flooded through him and he collapsed into a boneless lump.

"Ahhh, Nagina! Tell me that was just a sleep poison!" Anko said.

"He was annoying, Anko-chan," the cobra said. "Speaking of that one that betrays all contracts."

"Now we have to wait for him to wake up to interrogate him," Anko said with a mildly irritated tone.

* * *

Lying in the hospital bed, Ryoko was unconscious and remnants of what she had seen before passing out ran through her mind. Memories of her facing across at something that wanted most of the same things she did.

Joseibi's health and safety as well as that of her friends.

It stared at her with the same nervous, innocent seeming expression that she held commonly and held the same Utsuro Kamae stance as she did, currently sitting seiza in the midst of the imagined bones and charred flesh, watching her carefully as if gauging her to be a threat to what it feared the destruction of.

Eventually it found everything to be a threat. Except her. And so far she'd failed to stop it from destroying anything.

Ryoko hadn't been able to look it in the eyes, really. Since all that was there was a flickering mass of orange fire that contain threads of visible and tangible heavy chi that was poisoned after passing through her uncontrolled chakra and fear. The very air around the thing was a pulsating miasma of violet corroding mist.

Something moved behind her…and the thing that held her face spotted and charged, imagined fears of the possibility that these people it saw could hurt the things it desired to protect, sometime far into the future when some height and education as well as training had been made.

She dodged to move after it, too slow, and had to listen to the screaming and smell searing flesh again as it spiraled from there and the infinite village burned in infinite screams again.

* * *

Author's Notes

* * *

So, I'm a little scattered recently doing bits and pieces of three storylines which you're one of the people that follows me on the addventure, you've already seen.

This is in addition to doing some for-pay writing. And then I need to finish the DB guide book (about half done) and get the first story book for the original reboot finished...(think that's about a week or two's worth if I sit down and set myself to do it with no distraction.


	42. Travels

"Jiraiya-sama," Hinata said cautiously after the three had gotten well clear of the first town and it appeared that no one was around. "Why would those nukenin be after Naruto-kun?"

Naruto grimaced at the question, especially as Jiraiya glanced toward him inquisitively.

"I've got the kyuubi," Naruto said quietly.

Hinata's eyes widened then and her hand went to her mouth and she thought back to the Chunin Exam and the strange chakra that Naruto had called on to face against Shukaku.

"That's top secret, Hinata," Jiraiya said. "You would normally not even be told about the Jinchuriki until you were confirmed as the Hyuga heir, possibly at jonin level. However, there's nothing keeping Naruto from saying anything."

Hinata nodded slowly wondering if this is one of the things that her father couldn't tell her.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly.

Naruto cringed slightly as if expecting Hinata to step away from him or something. Maybe run screaming back home. He didn't expect her to move closer and tentatively grab onto his arm. The jinchuriki flushed then and scratched the back of his head with his free hand as Jiraiya smirked and looked on.

"In any case," Jiraiya said. "It's probably the kyuubi that they want. But for now I don't think we'll be having a problem with them."

Hinata tightened her grip on Naruto's hand.

"Uh, Hinata-chan," Naruto said. "It's all right."

"Not as such, no," Jiraiya said seriously. "Itachi Uchiha is an S-Class wanted nukenin and his partner is as well. And we can reasonably assume that they are not the only ones interested in you."

Hinata wondered how she could protect Naruto from that. How was it possible.

While most Naruto was really relieved that Hinata seemed to feel so attached to him and not about to run away, the most conscious part was wondering if he was going to get blood flow to his arm back.

"So, while we're looking for Tsunade," Jiraiya said, walking over to an old crumbling statue on the side of the road. "We're going to be working on something."

He smiled and held out his hand, as the two kids watched a bundle of chakra started to swirl about in his hand until a globe of visible energy was held in his hand which he then smashed into the statue, obliterating it.

Turning back around he smirked at the awestruck looks on the two kids' faces.

"Did you catch that Hinata?" he asked turning toward the Hyuga and then noting that the girl's face was normal, well, for a Hyuga. "You didn't activate the byakugan when I started to demonstrate that?"

"Well, Jiraiya-sama," she said quietly.

"I don't think she wants to let go," Naruto said.

Jiraiya smirked again then, almost leering as she responded.

"Well, I don't think either of you can train with your hands full like that," Jiraiya said. "And aren't you a bit young for getting into that sort of sparring anyway?"

Hinata and Naruto blinked in confusion for a moment before both turned bright red and took a quick pair of steps apart and both expressing denial that either was thinking anything about anything like that.

"Really, it's alright for girlfriend and boyfriend to be getting a little bit close," Jiraiya said. "But I have to insist that you wait a few years so that it's less disturbing."

Naruto stopped then, gave Jiraiya a flat glare as Hinata turned even redder.

"Ero-sennin, you're a pervert," Naruto said.

Meanwhile Hinata proved that while she'd much improved, she still hadn't completely escaped old problems.

"Ahh, Hinata-chan!" Naruto gasped as he moved to catch her before she fell. "What's the matter?"

Jiraiya sighed and chuckled under his breath.

* * *

Once the demonstration was made a second time, once Hinata was again awake and ready to watch with her byakugan, things were ready to continue.

"Did you catch that Hinata?" Jiraiya asked.

Hinata blinked and stared, mouth slack. It was like her Shugohakke. No, it was more like the Kaiten. She shook her head clear. It was like the Shugohakke and the Kaiten performed at the same time and held in the palm of a hand.

"I...think so?" Hinata said, glancing toward Naruto. "It is...complex."

"Ehh?" Naruto said.

"All right, onto the description," Jiraiya interrupted jovially. "There are three components to this technique. Rotation. Power. Control. There are no hand-signs for this technique, so it should be perfect for Naruto given his pathetic skill with forming signs."

Naruto growled at that last comment.

"Watch it Ero-Sennin," Naruto said.

"We all have our flaws Naruto, and it is hard to get past that," he added.

Naruto leaned over toward Hinata and whispered.

"What did it look like?" he asked.

"It was like a hurricane," Hinata said. "Held in the palm of his hands. Take Neiji-ni-san's technique and main and put it together. And...I'm not entirely sure that's accurate."

"The Hakkeshō Kaiten?" Jiraiya said. "Hmm, yes, that would be appropriate for the basic idea of the rotation, and you mentioned another technique?"

"Yeah, she's got this great thing where she cuts stuff with chakra," Naruto said.

"Hmm, I think I saw that in the chunin exam tapes," Jiraiya said. "Care for a demonstration, Hinata?"

Hinata glanced toward Naruto.

"Go ahead and show him, Hinata-chan!" Naruto said.

Nodding and stepping over toward the, side Hinata took a large breath before launching into her Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō. Most of her was focused on directing the sharp arcs of chakra around her body and slicing into the ground around her, but at least one part saw Jiraiya watching the technique with a critical eye.

He nodded as she brought the technique to an end and took a deep breath, steadying herself.

"That might be another comparison," Jiraiya noted with a nod. "Though, like the Kaiten, it's only a part of the rotation that goes into the Rasengan."

Inwardly he resolved to spend a bit more focus on watching Naruto and Hinata in the first stages of the training. The girl was a bit more impressive than he'd thought. However, his original worry was bearing out.

The girl might have had high chakra for a genin, but she didn't have chakra to be throwing around in practicing an A-rank jutsu.

He walked to the crest of a hill and looked down into the next town, another tourist centric town leading off to the Land of Hot Springs.

"And now time to get the training materials," he said.

* * *

Hinata's breath was coming in heavily as she gripped one of her arms with the other and tried to physically lift it up. She grimaced at the numbness in her arms and noticed Jiraiya frowning at her back as she tried to hide her fatigue from both him and Naruto.

Then the rubber ball in her hand dropped weakly the ground and she dived down to pick it up with her left, causing the right to drop deadly.

"Sure enough," Jiraiya thought. "She needs to build up a larger chakra reserve."

"Hinata-chan? Are you all right?" Naruto asked, looking over from his own training.

Another Naruto a little ways away tried to get an angle to see around Hinata's back and get a look at what she was hiding as well, though the Hyuga caught sight of the ploy.

"I'm...hf...fine, Naruto-kun," Hinata said. "Please don't concern yourself."

"Can you turn around and show me your hand at least?" Naruto asked.

"Uh...it's fine," Hinata said, noting that apparently he'd noticed her attempts to keep her hand unseen this time.

She waved with her other hand over her shoulder, turning slightly and smiled.

"See," she said.

Naruto frowned and crossed his arms, feeling there was something off about that but not sure exactly what it was.

"All right," he said hesitantly, turning back to his training with a worried glance back towards Hinata.

Turning to focus back on her hand she took in a deep breath and started to gather chakra together again, until Jiraiya's hand clamped down on her own and split her concentration before she could gather anymore chakra.

"That's enough for...GAAAHHH!" Jiraiya's statement ended in a shriek.

* * *

"I'm...I'm sorry Jiraiya-sama," Hinata said. "But..."

Jiraiya's eyebrow twitched as his blood-shot eyes stared back at the girl that was currently bowing apologetically in front of her. The same girl that had just maced him.

"You sort of asked for it Ero-Sennin," Naruto said with a slight chuckle, though he was glancing toward the way that Hinata was holding her right arm in place.

"What is it about Hyuga women and causing eye damage?" Jiraiya thought bitterly. "Her mother and aunt were just about the same."

The Toad Sage rubbed at his abused eyes then, grumbling and directed a gesture toward Naruto.

"Keep practicing, Naruto," he said. "I need to arrange something different for your girlfriend here."

Hinata and Naruto flushed again and exchanged looks. That response never got old for Naruto. It was so nice to see a couple that actually reciprocated and in which massively destructive fists were not involved.

"I'll be right over here, Hinata-chan," Naruto assured her.

"I still have the sprayer, Naruto-kun," Hinata noted.

Jiraiya groaned and dipped his head forward. Really, what did he do to deserve the distrust?

"You realize I'm not that kind of pervert, right," Jiraiya asked irritably.

Hinata and Naruto exchanged a look then that was definitely getting old.

"Just sit down on that stump," Jiraiya said with a sigh.

He waited for Naruto to start trying to burst his water balloons again and for Hinata to get comfortable before talking.

"At this rate," he said. "You're going to kill yourself before you learn this jutsu."

Hinata frowned sadly and looked down.

"This is not a thing to be ashamed of," Jiraiya said. "As of now, there are only two people in all the world that can perform this jutsu. Myself and Kakashi Hatake. You've already proceeded to the second step of the training and Naruto is only getting the first down. This is to be commended."

Hinata frowned and nodded at that.

"But you don't have the power you need, yet, to perform this level of jutsu," he noted.

"I am sorry for the failure, Jiraiya-sama," she said quietly.

"It is not yet time to declare this a failure," Jiraiya said. "You'll simply take longer than Naruto to reach where you can do it."

That was assuming Naruto figured out the first stage fairly soon. He'd gotten the hint from Hinata about rotating in many directions, but Jiraiya wasn't sure when he'd get the technique.

Plus given the way that Naruto was using clones in the training, Jiraiya had to be on the look out for the Nine-tail's chakra. Fortunately, he'd already prepared some seals for disrupting that occasion.

"If I do not have the physical capability then how will be able to perform it no matter how much I understand the theory?" Hinata asked.

"Chakra capacity can be improved," he reminded her. "But first, you need to rest. At least for an hour rest, and we won't get started again until I can see that arm moving with full ability. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Jiraiya-sama," Hinata said with quiet excitement.

"Okay, now give me the mace," he said.

"No," she responded, causing him to drop his head in defeat.

"I'll be right back with more supplies," Jiraiya said.

* * *

"Chakra is a combination of mental and physical energies," Jiraiya reminded Hinata later as they listened to Naruto yelling at water balloons in the background. "The physical energy provides the substance and fuel and the mental energy provides the shape and direction."

"Yes, they have taught us this in the academy," Hinata said.

"Damn balloon," Naruto shouted. "Burst already!"

There was a splashing sound and one of the clones, or maybe the real Naruto, it was hard to tell, protested loudly.

Jiraiya sighed and shook his head, wondering how long he had until the whole thing descended into a water balloon fight and then went back to Hinata and gestured toward the pile of bricks.

"Have you practiced brick-breaking?" he asked.

"Yes," Hinata said. "In the academy."

"All right," Jiraiya said, standing up and walking toward the pile of bricks to pile them up in a typical demonstration style. "What I want you to do is break the third brick of each pile of ten, and only the third brick."

Hinata nodded and stood up to move over to get ready to do so after he'd arranged the pile. She activated her byakugan entered stance and slammed a jyuken charged strike into the top to the top of the pile. Jiraiya looked on with a thoughtful expression as the third brick did, indeed shatter.

"And can you do that to a brick without the jyuken?" he asked.

Hinata blinked.

"Ehh?" a Naruto asked. "Why should she not use her Jyuken?"

"Because she's going to be working to build up her body and her mind," Jiraiya said. "A jyuken strike is going to be of little use in working her body and mind. She is too used to that sort of focus for it to force the mind to grow and her chakra does most of the work rather than her body. So I ask again, can you shatter a brick without the jyuken?"

"I can, Jiraiya-sama," Hinata asserted.

"Good, then you'll be trying to break the third brick and nothing else for two hours a day," Jiraiya said. "For another two-hours, you will work on that Shugohakke and making it more efficient. The rest of the time, I have another jutsu to teach you. It's called the Transparency Jutsu."

"Yatta!" Naruto called out. "I did...hey! No fair throwing them at me!"

"And there goes the water balloon fight," he said with a sigh just before a plastic water-filled projectile burst over the side of his head.

* * *

"Beyond this point is mostly wilderness and the next village we will find is likely to be that of the Joketsuzoku," Mokya noted, looking toward Ranma and Akane.

"All right, then we'll stop here for the night and stock up in the morning," Kurenai said noting that the shops were starting to shut down as the sun grew closer to the horizon. "We'll likely be here the next two days."

"Oooo, they have a hot springs here!" Tenten declared cheerfully as she pointed toward an advertisement on the edge of the town.

"That would be beneficial for my mistress as well," Mokya noted.

Kodachi cupped her chin in thought and then nodded in agreement.

"All right," Kurenai said, admitting to herself that it sounded good to her as well. "I guess we're staying at the hot springs then."

Sasuke kept his commentary to himself as the decision was made.

"Are we on a mission or some kind of holiday?" Kiba asked.

"Don't overlook the chance to enter into danger rested and refreshed," Ranma said. "You can't start too healthy."

"Besides, I like the name of this inn," Akane said with a smirk. "Nature's Bending Laws Inn."

Ranma and Kodachi turned to look at her briefly as Mokya explained the situation.

"My Aunt's maiden name can translate to the 'Laws of Heaven and Nature'," the girl noted.

"Ah, I see," Shino said, nodding.

It was still a somewhat weak joke and he could understand the grimace on both the other two chi users' faces.

* * *

The inn in question was very well maintained with courteous staff that made sure of their guest's comfort while respecting their privacy. Sasuke found especially that last part appealing as he sat in the hot water past the sunset.

He frowned briefly as the door opened and Ranma Saotome came out into the area and settled himself down into the water.

"Ahh, I have never stopped loving hot water," the man said. "You have no idea just how great hot water feels. And if you stay away from the springs, you'll be lucky enough never to know."

"The curse," Sasuke said idly.

"Yes, the curse," Ranma said. "It's sort of a fact of life now, and not something I really worry about too much about. But still something I'd rather never had to experience."

Sasuke grunted in something like understanding.

"Have you had some time to think about what I was talking about on the road here?" he asked.

"The virtues," Sasuke repeated uncomfortably. "I've thought about it some."

"And?" Ranma asked.

"And it crosses my mind just why you are so interested in me," Sasuke noted.

"Well, aside from the fact that you're teamed with my sister," Ranma said. "There's the fact that I'd rather not have to say 'oh, I wish I'd said something before he became a false master and I had to put him down.'"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at that.

"I've seen what that leads to," Sasuke said. "I have no interest in burning myself to ashes."

"It ain't that easy to spot coming all the time," Ranma said. "The old-style Musk have problems cause they think Yin is evil and try to enforce that on the world. You'll find a couple of others who focus on Yin without Yang, but one or the other ain't the problem."

"And how do you know when you're striding the line then?" Sasuke asked.

"When you're trying to push the world into doing something it doesn't want to," Ranma said. "The flashiest techniques push close to the danger point, an that's why we teach those only to disciples like 'Dachi. Basically, if you're trying to master yourself, your on the right track. If you're trying to master what's outside of you, things get dangerous."

"And why doesn't chakra have the same problem?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, chakra is just an extension of you, isn't it?" Ranma asked. "Can't say I know much more, you'd have to ask someone else. Maybe Ryoko in a few years, or maybe you, will be able to answer that."

He chuckled.

"Right now, there aren't any experts," Ranma finished. "Is that all you wanted to ask about?"

"Where does revenge fit in your virtues?" he asked grimly.

"Ahh," Ranma said. "Revenge ain't something I've felt much of. Not really, not like some people. When I was kid I threw some fits, but it wasn't my obsession. I had two others: to get a cure and to be the strongest. I caused so much trouble and hurt so many people just trying to get one of those two things. Revenge seems like just the same sort of obsession."

Sasuke sneered at that.

"How can you possibly be sure about that?" Sasuke said.

"I can't," Ranma said with a shrug. "But can I ask why don't you forget about this whole revenge thing?"

Sasuke stood up in flash of water and glared at Ranma, stepping forward as he did so.

"I am not about to forget how my brother slaughtered my entire clan," Sasuke snapped angrily.

"I didn't say anything about forgetting that your family was killed," Ranma said. "I said why not forget about getting revenge?"

"I have to get revenge!" Sousuke shouted angrily. "And I will do anything possible to get that revenge!"

"Oh, that's a familiar declaration," Ranma said nostalgically. "Though I don't think Ryouga meant it the same way you do. Anyway, listen to your phrasing. 'Have to' not 'want to' or 'hope to' or 'plan to.' Or anything else. Once you say 'have to' or 'got to' then you take your choice away. You've got no Fuki."

"There isn't a choice in this," Sasuke snapped bitterly.

"Then you aren't ever going to be a master of your self," Ranma said calmly. "You can't deny the choice without denying your will and you can only pretend to deny your responsibility, and people will likely get hurt that didn't have to. You'd have no power to even control yourself, just a puppet on a string."

"Does it matter if I accomplish what I set out to do?" Sasuke demanded. "And what does it matter if I'm a puppet if I'm pulling the strings."

"You won't be," Ranma said. "Just your emotions and obsessions."

"What's the difference?" Sasuke demanded.

"The difference is," Ranma said, stretching out. "After you kill who you need to kill, whether or not you still have a life to get to."

Ranma stood up then, calmly.

"You don't have to do anything," he said. "Heck you don't even have to eat or breathe."

"If you don't eat and breathe, you'll die," Sasuke said.

"Yeah, but doesn't mean you can't make the choice not to," the martial artist said. "Everything is a choice and everything has consequences. And they're wide consequences. I don't eat, I die, and then my family's sad and people I could have helped won't get that help. And eating feels good anyway. So I eat. I don't have to, but I choose to."

He shrugged and walked to the door then.

"Don't stay out here much longer," Ranma said. "You'll catch a cold."

Sasuke frowned in a mixture of anger, confusion and thought as the man left the area. He sat back down into the hot water and stayed there for a few minutes longer before stepping up and leaving the hot spring areas to head to the rooms.

As he left the bath area he found a woman waiting outside that wasn't a part of his group. She looked like someone out of the Lightning country, actually. Characteristically, he glared at her suspiciously, the way she was leaning in one of the inn robes and smirking knowingly down one of the hallways.

"My, my, Saotome has sure gotten wordy over the years," she said.

"Who..."

"Before you start thinking about raising a little volume, Sasuke-Baby," the woman interrupted him with a teasing tone of voice. "You might want to wait until you've heard what I can offer you. That won't happen if you catch my baby sister's attention. Or anybody else for that matter."

"What do you mean?" the young ninja asked. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"I'm someone who got a chance to see what you could do in the chunin exam," the woman noted. "You beat a Saotome in the air. That is impressive. I almost lost a substantial sum on you."

The way she spoke was outwardly playful and casual with traces of admiration, but there was something hollow or rehearsed about it all. And there was something disturbingly broken about the look in behind the woman's eyes.

"As for what I want," the woman said. "I want to see you get your revenge. I think it will be..." she seemed to search for the correct word. "...entertaining."

"Entertaining," Sasuke repeated angrily. "My quest for vengeance is entertaining to you?"

She chuckled slightly and turned fully toward him.

"Make no mistake, Sasuke-Baby," the woman said cheerfully. "I'm a woman of no maidenly feelings. I am a plague on this Earth. If Saotome's school had one less virtue, I'd be a master even without knowing thing one about fighting. But I do have information. Lots of information about lots of things."

She straightened away from the wall and started walking down the hall way.

"Information such as secret techniques, powerful weapons," she said, letting her back turn toward Sasuke. "Whereabouts of people, places and things."

She smirked again at the bluff which hopefully wouldn't be one by the next time she saw the boy.

"When Rochi-Baby comes to call for you," the woman said. "Just remember there are other options. And options that don't have a vested interest in your death. Go look for Nabiki Tendo, and I'm sure we'll meet again. Ta."

Sasuke stood watching the woman walk away and frowned, part of him wanting to chase the woman down and force the information he wanted out of her, but another portion urged caution and patience.

For once he listened to the latter.

* * *

The woman who had introduced herself as having no maidenly feelings to Sasuke took a turn down the hallway and found her rooms, humming a quiet little tune past a carefully crafted smile that broadcast that she knew everything a person didn't want her to know. Walking to the bathroom connected to her feet she turned on the faucet and reached down to wash her hands.

The water came flowing out with the ringing screams of a little girl echoing somewhere in the distance as the dark-skinned blonde calmly went about the task of cleansing her hands before looking up into the mirror and shutting the faucet off, leaving only a slow drip of water to strike the basin as she examined her face for any sign of a speck of dirt or a smudge of make-up.

The water thudded rhythmically against the basin in time with the screaming little girl and the dull, barely noticed throbbing ringing out from the center of her forehead.

The success of the operation still astounded her as she looked herself over and remembered staring up into a coldly smiling face with sparkling, lively and malevolent eyes sometime ago.

"Hmm, you could almost have me believing I was one of the decoys," the woman said with a chuckle.

The chuckle struck sharply into her ears and down her spine, failing to raise a chill as she walked into the main room of the suite and snatching up a manga before sitting down on the bed and leaning back to spend a little time with one of her new favorite series.

"Where is Gosunkugi?" she wondered idly before nodding in sudden realization.

The water was still dripping out of the faucet with exaggerated loudness and her head still seemed to feel each slow impact as the screaming and pleading continued screeching through the room around her.

"Oh, that's right," she said. "He's supposed to be monitoring the most stable decoy. About time he stopped wasting his time here and got to work."

The manga was a cute story. Some sort of slice of life thing set in the Fire Lord's court. A page was turned and she came to see an image of one of the characters, a younger girl, doing something silly and unrealistic. But it did remind her.

"Hmm, I think I saw a traveling family with a six year old girl," she commented aloud to herself.

She changed the page again, tapping her free hand to the time of the drumming, throbbing pain that she continued to remember.

"That girl Rochi-Baby gave me was much too old," she added. "Too much time spent living and far too many memories that could be used to bring her back. Still, she might serve some purpose when she's finished."

A particularly funny punchline from the manga drew a soft snorting laugh out of her and she sat up.

"Perhaps I should say hello to my baby brot..." she paused in confusion cricking her neck to the side as she blinked and tried to remember what she had just said.

After several seconds of listening to the screaming and thudding drops of water, she blinked and started speaking.

"Perhaps I should say hello to my baby sister and her beau," the woman repeated again as if she had never paused. "Really it has been way too long without my favorite entertainment. I wonder what they'll think of my new look."

A knock came on the door and she sighed irritably before standing up to walk through the room toward the door. She wasn't worried about whoever it was hearing the constant screaming, nobody yet had noticed it while it was going on and she didn't think it would last much longer.

She did have to admit however that whoever that little girl was, she had endurance and a set of lungs to keep up screaming for so long. Where had that one come from?

She opened the door to see one of the staff bringing her a meal tray and caught the sight of a dark-skinned woman with blonde hair and realized in a flash.

"That's right, this one is from the Land of Lightning," she noted aloud.

"Pardon, Ma'am?" the woman who'd brought her food asked.

"Nothing, Baby," she said with a smile at the naive woman. "Just realizing something."

"Right," the woman said with a pleasant smile. "Well have a good meal, Miss."

"Oh I intend to," the woman said, giving her normal twisted smirk before the girl left.

The door was closed and she walked back in the suite with her dinner, including a substantially sized ice crean.

"I wonder what I would look like black," the woman said as if forgetting what she had seen of herself in the mirror. "I'll have to see how that decoy turns out eventually."

Another scream burst out loudly carrying words.

"I am..." the girl seemed to be screaming.

"I am Nabiki Tendo, of course," the woman said with a smile as she started eating in the midst of her private and unique musical accompaniment.

* * *

Tsunade, the granddaughter of the First Hokage, stared bitterly down the walkway toward the former friend who stood there smiling. Shizune stood in front of her protectively, eyes narrowed and her arm held up, ready to reveal the needle launchers she had hidden under her sleeve and glaring at both of the Konoha traitors before them.

This explained why she was on such a winning streak.

"That is the offer, Tsunade," Orochimaru said in his slick tone of voice outside of a sickened smile. "I have a subordinate who has acquired a disease that is beyond my own ability to heal and I was wondering if I might enlist your aid."

Tsunade kept still as she kept her visage stony, keeping her bluff. She could tell that Orochimaru was, more or less, in the peak of health and didn't have her hemophobia to deal with. A battle between them had the potential to rework the landscape around them, but even thinking about the potential of blood being spilled was sapping her strength.

She couldn't let him know that though. She hoped it would seem like she'd gotten past that problem, because with that, the advantage was all Orochimaru's.

"Get your face out of here, Orochimaru," Tsunade said firmly.

"You heard Tsunade-sama," Shizune said in support, eyes narrowed and one hand at the ready.

"Surely there's something I could offer," Orochimaru said with a smile.

At his side, a white-haired young man stood easily and watched with a calm expression.

"There is nothing you have that I could want," Tsunade informed him.

"Really?" Orochimaru said. "Let's see about that. I could, perhaps find a way to give you chance to see those who you've lost. Your brother and the man you loved."

"And what would you do once you had your subordinate healed?" Shizune demanded.

"Why...destroy Konoha," Orochimaru said simply.

"Because that worked so well the first time," a new voice added, drawing looks toward that direction.

Orochimaru frowned as he saw Jiraiya dropping down from atop one of the walls to walk idly up to a third point equidistant to both Tsunade and Orochimaru. Behind him, Orochimaru recognized the kyuubi-brat and another young genin he didn't know but looked a lot like a Hyuuga to him.

No wonder he'd found Orochimaru so quickly.

"What are you doing here, Jiraiya," Tsunade demanded as Kabuto and Orochimaru eased backwards into a watchful stance.

"Well," the broad shouldered man said. "I was happening through the area and look at that, a sannin reunion going on. Hey, Orochimaru, how's things been since you were run out of Konoha a couple of weeks ago."

The snake sannin frowned and considered his options as the two kids with Jiraiya nervously took up positions in support, though it was clear from the look on the girl's face that at least she didn't expect to have much impact on a fight with these three.

"I think I shall take my leave now," Orochimaru said with a smile.

"Oh, don't leave on my account," the Toad Sage said in a conversational tone. "Naruto, Hinata, stay back."

"Hell no!" Naruto said, "That's the guy that was behind everything in the attack on us, right?"

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly. "This is a out of our level."

"I don't care," Naruto shouted. "This guy needs to be taken down."

"Still a loud one, I see," Orochimaru said with a smirk, "but I'm afraid I shall have to insist on leaving now, giving you some time to consider things."

"I'll be seeing you later, Naruto-kun," Kabuto added before both vanished into thin air.

"Tch!" Jiraiya grimaced bitterly before glancing over toward Tsunade carefully.

"Why the hell did we just let him get away?" Naruto asked.

"Because we need to focus on the mission, Naruto," Jiraiya said. "And that means speaking to Tsunade and not letting her slip just now."

"You're looking for me too, eh?" the woman said.

"Yeah, so you're saying this lady is the fifty year old granny we're looking for?" Naruto demanded.

"Naruto-Kun," Hinata suggested quietly from behind him. "Perhaps it would be best not to..."

"Fifty ye...who are you calling Granny, brat?" Tsunade shouted.

* * *

Tsunade stared grimly across at Jiraiya, she was doing a lot of that recently. Then again, she'd been doing a lot of that for a good number of years. Just right now, it was a bit more pronounced than usual.

"So, I'm a mission now, hmm?" Tsunade asked, glancing toward the Hyuga girl and noting the lack of either a headband or one of those abhorrent caged bird seals. "Apparently important enough to send some brat from the Hyuga main family to come and beg me to come back with you. If you really wanted to stroke my ego, they wouldn't send a kid even a well-regarded one."

Hinata blinked and looked toward the blonde woman, her mouth hanging open.

"I'm well-regarded?" she asked hesitantly.

"After your performance at the chunin exams, you're at least respected," Jiraiya said with a laugh.

The exchange caused Tsunade to blink in confusion slightly, the mannerism of the Hyuga had been quiet and controlled, as she expected, but as soon as she started talking it became apparent she was also something much less than arrogance.

"Sarutobi wants to talk to you, Tsunade," Jiraiya said calmly while Tsunade took in that strangeness for a Hyuga princess. "He's not in the best shape of his life."

"I should say not," Tsunade said firmly. "What's he thinking, running around like he's still in his prime? I'm surprised he didn't die from such foolishness."

"Hey! Watch what you say about the old man!" Naruto said angrily. "He actually fought that snake freak."

"Brat, close your mouth when your elders are speaking," Tsunade said, casually dismissing him with a side look. "What is it the old man really wants to see my about, Jiraiya? He wouldn't send you out just for his medical needs."

"There's also Lee and Ryoko-chan," Naruto said quickly.

He paused for a moment, he'd heard something about Sakura too, but she was up and around and didn't look like there was anything wrong with her. Granted she'd seemed a bit more upset than she used to be, and he'd noticed she was living with the crazy snake lady that Ryoko had gotten along with at the start of the Forest of Death thing, but none of that called for a medical ninja.

Jiraiya frowned thoughtfully and looked toward Hinata and Naruto as Tsunade glared at him and Shizune looked on, holding the little pig nervously. Naruto's attitude so far had been less than exemplary, and he wondered what the boy would do with this next piece of information.

"Fine," Jiraiya said, leaning back. "The Third Hokage has named his next successor, Tsunade."

Naruto paused and glanced from Jiraiya to the blonde woman as Hinata and Shizune both took in their breath.

"He wants you to come to Konoha to be the Fifth Hokage," Jiraiya said.

Tsunade gave a humorless laugh and leaned back crossing her arms.

"That's an offer only a fool would take," she said bitterly as Naruto fumed. "It never ends well for the person in the position."

"That's generally understood," Jiraiya agreed.

"And you expect me to take that offer?" Tsunade asked. "You're as foolish as the old man if you think I'd take that doomed position."

Naruto growled and stood up onto the table and glared into Tsunade's face.

"There's no way we'd want a dried up, bitter old woman like you, Granny!" Naruto said. "Why did we even come to find this lady, Ero-Sennin? Just to hear her complain about stuff like an idiot? You said we were looking for a medical genius!"

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said as she nervously noted the woman's body language. "Perhaps you shouldn't..."

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune noted. "Please calm..."

"What the hell does a brat like you know about anything!" Tsunade demanded angrily standing up and placing her hands down on the table.

If she'd had a chance to drink more, she'd probably be placing one foot on the top of the table and posing even more dramatically.

"What can you even know about the sort of thankless position that really is?" she demanded angrily. "Get back to walking dogs and weeding gardens."

"If you don't want the job, then he can give it to me," Naruto said. "I'm going to be Hokage someday! Might as well be today."

Tsunade flinched, her face faltering a moment as she placed Naruto's face alongside two others. But she recovered quickly and sneered at him.

"I can beat you with one finger," she laughed. "How does that make you ready to be Hokage?"

"Oh yeah?" Naruto said. "We'll see about that!"

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said quickly. "Please don't do this. Jiraiya-sama, tell him to calm down please."

"Tsunade-sama, what are you thinking?" Shizune asked nervously.

Jiraiya just sighed and shook his head, feeling vaguely disappointed as Hinata and Shizune each moved to stand in front of the person they were respectively most concerned with.

"Hmph," Naruto said. "That sounded like a challenge to me and heck if I'm going to turn that down."

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said. "That's sort of Ryoko's code."

"And mine is to always follow through with what I say!" Naruto said. "And I ain't going to let her talk crap about being Hokage!"

"Well then, brat, let's go outside and settle this," Tsunade snapped angrily.

* * *

Tsunade frowned as she watched the backs of Jiraiya and his charges. The fight had been almost predictable. Right up to the point where he'd tried to peg her with an incomplete Rasengan.

She was glad at the moment that she hadn't been drunk. The brief inclination to place a wager on his learning the technique with her necklace as the prize crossed her mind.

The fact that she even thought about sent a bit of a shiver through her body. Did she want him dead, that she thought about giving him that cursed thing?

The Hyuga girl came down out of the inn rooms and walked past Tsunade, bowing nervously to the woman as she passed on some errand judging by the way she was lipping over a list to herself.

Shizune had been behaving similarly when she'd left to arrange rooms for the two of them just minutes ago.

"Hey, Hyuga, over here," Tsunade said.

"Tsunade-sama?" Hinata asked nervously. "I have to go get some more rubber balls and balloons."

"Jiraiya sent you out of the room so he could talk to that boy alone, didn't he?" Tsunade asked.

"That may be," Hinata agreed.

For the first time, and Tsunade snapped a curse relating to her state of medical awareness, she noted the bandaging around the girl's right hand as she came closer. She didn't let her think about what is probably under those bandages oozing from what were likely scraped knuckles.

"Why are you, a Hyuga, doing hard style training like that?" Tsunade asked, curiously. "And why do you act like a servant? You are main Hyuga, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am the daughter of Hiashi Hyuga," Hinata said quietly.

The sannin's eyes widened fractionally for a brief moment as Hinata identified herself as the daughter of the head of the house.

"And why is the Hyuga princess so respectful of that brat?" Tsunade asked.

"Because he and two others were the first to tell me I wasn't useless," Hinata said quietly under her breath. "Might I go, Tsunade-sama? If rubber balls are on the list, it means Jiraiya-sama thinks I might be able to try training in the second step again. I should like to..."

"He has you training in this jutsu too?" Tsunade asked. "Foolishness. Go ahead, get on with your errands, princess."

Hinata bowed and walked away.

"Just why do these kids get me so riled up?" Tsunade wondered bitterly.

The overlapping images of Dan and her brother came again, and she knew. That was why she had gone away in the first place, to avoid seeing kids like that throw their lives away on something useless.


End file.
